A DAUGHTER is seeking legal advice after her mum died from an asbestos-related cancer.

Lesley Llewellyn is looking for ex-workmates and colleagues of her mum Joyce Hawley to help provide information about how her mum could have been exposed to asbestos dust while working at Edward Gorton Ltd on Manchester Road, Paddington.

The company later became part of Cheshire Gelatine.

Joyce, from Bruche, died aged 77 in February 2014 from mesothelioma, a fatal cancer caused by exposure to asbestos dust and Lesley has since sought legal advice from Slater and Gordon.

“My mum worked at the company from the late 1950s to 1974 and was employed as a lab assistant, "said Lesley, aged 58.

"She met her partner Eric there when he started work in the yard. My mum had to go out in to the yard on a regular basis to collect samples of various products and this is where she would have been exposed to asbestos.

"The yard had very large shelters, described as being ‘like aircraft hangars’, where animal carcasses were stored. These hangars were made from asbestos and Eric remembers them being in poor condition and having to demolish them.

"He was even asked to cut them up with a saw in order for them to be thrown away. This is where mum would have had contact with asbestos dust.”

Lesley is being helped by Madelene Holdsworth, a specialist in asbestos disease cases at Slater and Gordon, who would like to speak to anyone who worked at Edward Gorton/Cheshire Gelatine in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

She said they do not have to have known Joyce Hawley; but any information on the use of asbestos in the buildings or anywhere else on the premises would be of great interest.

Lesley, from Dallam, said: “We miss mum terribly and I know she would want to warn others about the dangers of asbestos, which the main reason we are taking this action against her former employer.

"They exposed her to asbestos and they should be brought to account.

"She was very poorly and couldn't go upstairs or out shopping because she was so short of breath all the time. It was only about a month before she died that the doctors suspected she had mesothelioma.

"She has left a large hole in our lives but at least she is no longer suffering."

To contact Slater and Gordon call 0161 383 3830 or email madelene.holdsworth@slatergordon.co.uk.