Long-time builder, 68, died from rare cancer resulting from exposure to asbestos

A 68-year-old man who had started work as a builder in his teens died from a rare, aggressive cancer which developed from his being exposed to asbestos fibres during his working life.

David Rollinson, of School Lane, Freckleton, died in Trinity Hospice in April after being diagnosed last year with mesothelioma.

He had received the diagnosis at hospital in his birthplace Huddersfield, where he was living with his mother while his home in Freckleton was being worked on.

The diagnosis came after he had sought medical advice after suffering shortness of breath and when the condition was confirmed following a biopsy, he was placed on palliative care last September.

He was at Trinity for end of life care when he died, an inquest at Blackpool Town Hall heard.

Mr Rollinson had started work in the building trade in the mid-1970s and had outlined in a statement he was preparing for legal action before his death that he had been exposed to asbestos during his time in the trade.

Inhaling or swallowing microscopic asbestos fibres is the primary cause of mesothelioma, accounting for more than 80 to 90 per cent of all cases.

It takes some years - often between 10 and 50 - for symptoms to appear after the initial exposure to asbestos but can then rapidly prove fatal.

Blackpool and Fylde senior coroner Alan Wilson, confirming mesothelioma as the cause of death, said that after the condition had presented later in his life, Mr Rollinson showed the typical pattern who someone who had died some months after a diagnosis.

He returned a conclusion of death from industrial disease.