A British man who served as an electrician’s mate on Britain’s first nuclear submarine has received a sizeable settlement as compensation for his exposure to asbestos while on the job.

According in an article in the North-West Evening Mail, Ken McDonald, age 67, was an employee at Vickers Shipyard in Barrows during the 1960s. While working on the HMS Dreadnought from 1961 to 1963 he would carry bags of asbestos for the electricians to use for lagging pipes aboard the vessel. He would come home covered in asbestos dust but had no idea it could harm him or his family members, he told the newspaper.

Earlier this week, he was awarded £102,500, thanks to the assistance of the local Barrow Asbestos Related Disease Support group, who put him in touch with his former union and their legal experts.

“When I was diagnosed with mesothelioma I was not surprised but it was a tremendous shock,” McDonald said. “Usually when you’re diagnosed with this illness they give you between two and twelve months. You’ve just got to get on with it and take each day as it comes.”

McDonald had nothing but praise for the local asbestos disease support group, which has helped dozens of shipyard workers obtain the compensation they deserve.

“If I hadn’t gone to them I wouldn’t have got my interim payment from the government, which you get almost immediately,” he said. “I am relieved to have received this compensation but I would rather have my health back. At least now I know that my wife and family will be provided for. I’m hoping I’m going to live a little bit longer than they said I’m going to.”

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