Man Receives Meso Compensation on Day of his Death

September 3, 2006 - A U.K. man who was sickened with mesothelioma nearly 6 decades after he worked with the material, recently received word of his success in an asbestos litigation case, only to die a few hours later.

Russell Yaxley, age 78, learned via a letter from his solicitor (attorney) that a heating company had agreed to pay £40,000 compensation for the asbestos contamination that led to his lung cancer.  According to an account on InjuryWatck.uk, the Peterborough resident suffered a relapse later in the day, was admitted to the local hospital, and died a short time after.

"He just wanted to make sure I was going to be ok.  I think he was holding on as long as he could," said his wife Mavis, age 60.  “It was obvious he was getting worse, but that day he started smiling again. It was like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders, but later he was going to the bathroom and collapsed at the top of the stairs."

The online article notes that after leaving school at the age of 14, Russell worked in a sheet metal factory in Norwich for four years and part of the job was cutting up asbestos sheets. There was a lot of dust, he said, but no one suspected it was deadly. 

Just a few months ago, the former army fitness instructor and self-admitted fitness nut told his local newspaper: "I've been out and about all my life and then suddenly I can't walk 50 yards without collapsing". 

One of his goals before he died, said Mavis, was to highlight the dangers of working with asbestos so that others could be spared his suffering.