'We had no masks, no gloves, no nothing...'
'I began work in the shipyards in 1955 as an apprentice engineer at the age of 17,' says Peter McIntyre, a 69-year-old with mesothelioma cancer. 'I was fitting the engines into ships and the laggers were working over us and stuff would come down like snowflakes. At the end of the day, my overalls were absolutely white.' Tragically, the 'stuff ' was the deadly dust asbestos and McIntyre recalls workers, unaware of the dangers, throwing it around as though it were 'snowballs': 'We had no masks, no gloves, no nothing.'
McIntyre was diagnosed with mesothelioma in January 2006, 47 years after he left the dockyards in Scotland and moved to Kendal, Cumbria. Unlike other sufferers who were exposed to asbestos in English shipyards, Peter is entitled to free chemotherapy drugs.
'When I was first diagnosed, Morecambe Bay Primary Care Trust wouldn't fund the treatment,' he says. 'They were prepared to let me pay for it and the costs could have been £50,000.' However he was advised that, because he had been exposed to asbestos in Scotland, he qualified for publicly funded treatment there.
He describes the chemotherapy as 'six months of absolute torture'. 'I wanted to give up many times and it was my family who kept me going. But if I hadn't had the treatment I wouldn't be here now.'
McIntyre is also able to pursue his claim for compensation through the Scottish courts. On his death, his wife Margaret would be able to claim up to £30,000, his two children - in their 40s - would also be able to claim up to £15,000 each, and his five grandchildren potentially have a claim. If he had work ed in a shipyard in England, only his wife would have been able to claim - and then only £10,000. 'Somebody getting mesothelioma in England is the same as somebody getting it in Scotland, what's the difference? Why can't we all get what's due?'
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