A young British woman, who has remained anonymous to the media, claims she developed mesothelioma due to the fall-out from a fire at a Ministry of Defense site in 1983 and witnesses are coming forth to support her claims.

According to an article in the Shropshire Star, the Telford woman says her terminal illness was caused by the asbestos fallout from a huge blaze at Central Ordnance Depot Donnington, as it was then known, on June 24, 1983.

The article notes that asbestos in the roof of the burning building was “scattered over more than 15 square miles of east Shropshire and more than £165 million damage was caused.”

The woman is suing both the Ministry of Defense and the company for which her father worked when she was a young child. Currently, she is one of the youngest people on record ever afflicted with this aggressive disease for which the only known cause is exposure to asbestos.

The woman has told her lawyers she remembers playing in the garden at her Leegomery home when the asbestos from the fire fell like “snow”. She was only seven years old when the blaze occurred.
Others have begun to corroborate her story, says attorney Helen Childs. “We had somebody e-mail us directly to say he was a witness and a further three people put messages on the Shropshire Star website to say they were there at the time,” Childs noted.

“My client is really buoyed up by the responses she has had. We hope to have lots of people along at our meetings next week. It really has given my client quite a boost and she is pleased by that.”
The plaintiff is currently hospitalized and has been told she has only weeks to live.

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