A FORMER factory worker is appealing for help from his erstwhile colleagues in Trowbridge and Freshford after he contracted an incurable cancer linked to asbestos exposure.

John Hippisley, of Radstock, Somerset, worked at Peradins Rubber Factory, Freshford, as a press hand from 1968 to 1995, when the site was moved to Trowbridge. He now suffers from mesothelioma.

“My whole family has been left absolutely devastated by my illness. Before my diagnosis, I was fit and well and enjoying retirement. This has been a complete bombshell for us all,” said Mr Hippesley.

“The boiler house was just outside the press shop on the Freshford site. Sometimes when someone was off sick I had to go in the boiler house to help out. It was a low ceiling and very dusty.

“I believe there were asbestos lagged pipes in the boiler house. There were two boilers and sometimes I had to shovel coke into the fires.

“I used asbestos gauntlets and these were a whitish colour and very fibrous. Every so often, I was allowed a new pair but only when the old ones had become really worn out and had holes in them.”

“You had to take your old ones to the stores to show them that they were properly worn out before a new pair was allowed.”

Mr Hippisley, who has been married to Valerie for 53 years, experienced episodes of breathlessness in May and following a biopsy in August he was diagnosed with the terminal cancer.

Now he and his family are desperately trying to discover how he came to be in contact with deadly asbestos dust and have contacted solicitors.

“Understandably, the family are extremely upset that John has been diagnosed with such an awful disease and we are really hoping that this appeal for information will help us get some answers,” said Helen Grady, the family’s representative from Novum Law.

“We are appealing to anybody who worked in maintenance at the Freshford or Trowbridge sites from 1965 onwards who can provide information about asbestos presence on pipework, in the boiler house, the corrugated roof, the cladding and downpipes.”

According to the NHS, more than 2,500 people in the UK are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year – a condition almost always caused by asbestos exposure. The cancer usually develops between 20 to 60 years after the initial exposure.

Peradin’s Freshford site, where the land is now home to 21 houses, was closed in 1995 and left derelict for many years.

If you can help contact Novum Law on 0845 1603534 and speak to Ms Grady.