Retired Burroughs Wellcome painter appeals for help with asbestos exposure investigation
A 78-year old retired painter and decorator who was recently diagnosed with a terminal asbestos-related lung cancer, is seeking answers about why his former Dartford-based employer Burroughs Wellcome allowed him to be exposed to deadly levels of the toxic dust during the 1960s and 1970s.
David Stanley, who lived and worked in Gravesend and Stone in Greenhithe, was diagnosed with mesothelioma in October 2016. He is appealing for his ex-colleagues to come forward with any information about the working conditions they experienced at the Dartford factory of Burroughs Wellcome between 1964 and 1973.
Mr Stanley, who now lives in Eastbourne, spent his early life working for the Co-Operative in Gravesend before joining Burroughs Wellcome at their huge 43-acre site on the River Darent in Dartford. He recalls workers mixing asbestos powder in baths to apply to the miles of pipework that ran throughout the premises.
Mr Stanley went to his doctor after he started to have problems with breathlessness and finding it increasingly hard to walk to his home. Following medical investigations, he was given the devastating news that he had mesothelioma, the incurable cancer known to be caused by exposure to asbestos.
Having instructed expert industrial disease lawyers Hodge Jones & Allen in London to investigate how he was exposed to asbestos dust, Mr Stanley wants to find out if Burroughs Wellcome could have done more to protect him from the lethal substance.
His legal representative, asbestos and mesothelioma compensation lawyer Andrew James at Hodge Jones & Allen, said: “As a result of this illness, Mr Stanley now struggles to get around his home or do the most basic of tasks. He is becoming reliant on his wife to assist him with everything.
“Mr Stanley is in this unfortunate predicament because his employer exposed him to asbestos at work and failed to protect him from the deadly dust. Clearly, this should not have happened. The dangers of asbestos were well known to employers at the time of his employment.”
Mr Stanley, who is too unwell to provide media interviews, has asked anyone who has information that may help to please contact Andrew James at Hodge Jones & Allen on 020 7874 8458 or email ajames@hja.net.