Publisher Health

A woman who lives with a form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos is trying to raise awareness of the dangerous substance.

Asbestos can be found in many older buildings including schools, housing and hospitals.

Helen Bone, from Marton-in-Cleveland, Middlesbrough, worked for 25 years as a nurse and believes she may have contracted mesothelioma in hospital buildings.

She is now raising awareness to help others and said it was no longer “an old man’s disease”.

Mesothelioma is incurable and symptoms may take between 20 and 50 years to show.

They include fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain and a persistent cough.

Ms Bone was diagnosed in 2021, aged 38, when residual chest pain would not go away after she recovered from Covid.

An ultrasound scan showed a large collection of fluid on her lung.

The 42-year-old is calling for a plan to be put in place regarding rebuilding and repairing public buildings.

“If we don’t, more and more people will die and that’s just the reality of it,” she said.

“We need to be proactive.

“We can’t be waiting for it to become an absolute national emergency.”

Ms Bone said people being diagnosed with mesothelioma were no longer “your workmen, your electricians, your miners – they’re teachers, doctors, nurses, office-workers”.

“People who have gone to work, done their job, and have been handed a death sentence because of this awful material that’s not been properly managed,” she said.

“I want people to be aware of it.

“I don’t want anyone to have to go through what me and my family has had to go through.”