Appeal to hospital workers by Norwich woman’s son to find source of asbestos that killed her

The sons of a Norwich woman who was killed by asbestos she probably inhaled whilst working as a hospital cleaner have appealed to her friends and fellow workers to provide evidence of how she contracted the deadly disease.

Shirley Pauline Yallop was employed at the Norwich and Norfolk Hospital at their old St Stephens Road premises from the late 1980s until its closure in 2003.

She died at the Priscilla Bacon Lodge in April 2016, aged 69, just a few months after being diagnosed with mesothelioma, an aggressive and always fatal cancer which is associated with having inhaled asbestos fibres.

The disease invariably takes two or three decades before it shows symptoms.

Mrs Yallop recalled that the corridors and other areas where she cleaned were lagged with asbestos.

The material was used widely in cladding and insulation, but its dangers were recognized during the 1980s and it is now a banned substance.

Many older public buildings such as hospitals and schools still contain asbestos. But given its potential hazards, there are strict legal requirements that a register of the asbestos is kept and updated regularly.

Asbestos specialist lawyer Martyn Hayward of Ashtons Legal acts for Mrs Yallop’s sons, Eugene and Rodell Dunford. He has applied to the hospital trust through a freedom of information request for details of the state of the asbestos in the old buildings at the time Mrs Yallop worked there.

But in spite of the legal requirement to maintain records, the trust can only provide information up to 2000, when the records show some issues requiring an immediate remedy, including removal in some cases.

There is no evidence as to whether the urgent work was ever carried out.

“The trust tells us that the asbestos was managed and defects remedied during Mrs Yallop’s employment,” Martyn Hayward says.

“We’re told a register was maintained of all asbestos materials present in the hospital, which supposedly also included information about the condition of the materials.

“They also say the register was continually updated and any recommendations were acted upon. But apart from the documents referred to, no evidence of its being ‘updated regularly’ can be traced.

“All we know is that there was asbestos present and that at some point it needed urgent attention, which suggests it was in a potentially dangerous state before. There the evidence ends.

“So we’re appealing to anybody who might have worked with Mrs Yallop at the hospital and has any memories of the state of the asbestos in the building to contact me.”

Martyn Hayward is on 01223 431112 or Martyn.Hayward@ashtonslegal.co.uk.