Don’t be hard on Crewe Works (From Crewe Guardian)

Don’t be hard on Crewe Works

3:38pm Thursday 24th November 2011 in Letters

After reading the Guardian, November, 10, I was sorry to hear of the young man who was diagnosed with mesothelioma, the most lethal cancer version of asbestos exposure.

I am Harry Fortuna, now aged 94 years old, and along with many others believed and was encouraged to believe that we had a kind of immunity to the stuff. Last year, when we had the cold weather, I was coughing, choking and gasping for breath and eventually I was rushed to Leighton Hospital. It was near fatal. It turned out I had contracted both the the dust disease pneumoconiosis and the slower but still dangerous asbestosis. This is the dust disease, asbestosis takes longer to kill you. However after treatment, they managed to clear my left lung, which was completely calcinated.

My point is many people die from other causes before the asbestos or dust they have inhaled does kill.

Some actually contract the disease but it could be diagnosed as, say, lung cancer or a chest infection.

Don’t be too hard on blaming the railway company, we all had jobs. Crewe Works was always overmanned and the old hands were proud of working in those stinking old antiquated workshops, building those clanking, hissing, monstrosities they call steam engines.

Harry Fortuna Crewe