Grieving Wigan woman’s plea for help after mum's asbestos-linked death

Marina Cox succumbed to mesothelioma in January this year at the age of 72, just months after being diagnosed.

Her daughter Lisa Greenall and her legal team believe that the deadly industrial disease was contracted when Marina worked for telecoms company Plessey at their then Lamberhead Green base in Orrell, between 1967 and 1973.

A recent inquest at Bolton Coroner’s Court heard that Marina used to work at a desk making telephone dials which was opposite the entrance to the premises’ boiler room which was lagged with asbestos.

She recalled later that whenever workers would come in for their shift, the desks would have to be wiped down because there was a lot of dust on all the surfaces.

A single asbestos fibre can lie dormant in a person’s lung for up to 50 years before suddenly causing a sudden and fatal decline in health.

Marina, who lived in St Clements Court on Worsley Mesnes Drive, went on to work at Woolworths after Plessey and was then the stewardess of several social clubs before retiring, none of which appear as likely a candidate for her contracting mesothelioma.

Lisa, a 53-year-old mum of four, said: “I noticed my mum was starting to lose quite a lot of weight soon after the pandemic broke in spring 2020.

“I took her to the doctor’s and she underwent a battery of tests and it was at the Thomas Linacre Centre on

August 19 that she was told by Dr Sundar that she had the illness and that it was untreatable. I don’t think it really sank in at first.

“She underwent a course of chemotherapy but it was too strong for her. It wiped her out, she ended up with a chest infection which put her in hospital, which was not what we wanted in the middle of a Covid pandemic.

“Once she got out of hospital that was it. Soon she was too weak even to get out of bed and just after Christmas I was with her at her home 24/7 until she passed away on January 12. Only 30 people were allowed at the funeral.

“I truly believe that she would still be here now if she hadn’t caught that absestos illness. We have enlisted the help of Nimish Patel at the Manchester law firm AWH Solicitors and he has advised me to build a case against Plessey by trying to track down other people who worked for the company there at that time.”

The coroner recorded a verdict of death by mesothelioma but did not apportion blame for Marina’s contracting it.

Anyone with information is asked to email Nimish.patel@awhsolicitorsRJ or ring 0161 4707223.

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