1:12pm Tuesday 24th February 2009
SUFFERERS of an asbestos related cancer are to be remembered by South Cheshire residents in a special Action Mesothelioma Day this month.
To mark the day on Friday (February 27), Thompsons Solicitors will hand over a donation to staff at the Specialist Cancer Unit at Leighton Hospital in Crewe.
More than £200 was raised through a raffle, with personal donations from local trade union officers.
The presentation will mark Action Mesothelioma Day, a national event which highlights the affects of this devastating disease caused by exposure to asbestos.
Every year more than 2,000 people are diagnosed with the disease. There is no cure and many are given just 12 months to live or less.
Thompsons works to help many mesothelioma victims and their families claim compensation for the disease.
The funds will be presented to Sara Evans, the cancer services manager and the Macmillan lung cancer specialist nurse Sue Stubbs on behalf of the specialist Macmillan Cancer Unit.
Terry Loughrey, regional head of the Midlands Specialist Asbestos Solicitors Team at Thompsons said: "Throughout Action Mesothelioma Day memorial events will take place all over the United Kingdom to remember the plight and suffering of all the affected victims and their families.
"The event is to raise awareness to future generations of the appalling death toll from asbestos.
"The dreadful asbestos legacy will continue to cause devastation to the victims and families of the Stoke, Staffordshire and South Cheshire area for decades to come.
"It is overwhelmingly an industrial disease caused by a failure on the part of employers to adequately protect their workers. There have also been many wives and children that have also contracted the disease from inhaling asbestos dust from contaminated work clothes that brought the dust home.
"This is a time for us to think of all the innocent people whose lives have been wrecked by mesothelioma so that they know our thoughts are with them at all times."
Gill Willcocks, group co-ordinator of the Dave Willcocks Asbestos Victims Support Group in Crewe, will also be attending the event.
Gill said: "The work of the specialist Macmillan Cancer Unit at Leighton Hospital and all the local hospitals is vital to the people in the area.
"All those who have benefitted from the help and support from the local chest consultants, Macmillan specialist lung cancer nurses and all the nursing staff at the local hospitals are indebted to their professionalism and dedication.
"They are all silent heroes but we are all proud of them and their work and truly appreciate all that they do."
For more information on tcone support group call 01270 254449.
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