Asbestos Exposure In Schools

A woman has died from cancer just a day after being told she had won a two-year battle for compensation over exposure to asbestos when she was a school girl.

Dianne Willmore, 49, from north Wales, was told she should be paid £240,000 after she contracted malignant mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer caused mainly by breathing in asbestos. She lost her battle with the disease the following day.

As a pupil at Huyton's Bowring School in Merseyside in the 1970s, she inhaled the dangerous substance. The High Court decided that Mrs Willmore was entitled to the cash because Knowsley Council "knew or ought to have known that any more than minimal exposure to asbestos dust was potentially hazardous".

It is the first time a case relating to exposure at a school has been found in favour of an ex-pupil.

Mrs Willmore grew up in Huyton but later moved to Wrexham in north Wales.

Copyright © Press Association 2009

Adrian Budgen from law firm Irwin Mitchell said: ‘The removal of all asbestos from all schools will ensure that future deaths are prevented. On a moral and ethical grounding, it will save lives and the unbearable grief that so many families are suffering and in  the long run could be financially beneficial.’