Asbestos victim Ken’s ‘help me’ plea for justice

Ken Partridge

AN Oldham pensioner who was exposed to asbestos almost 50 years ago is appealing to former colleagues to come forward and help in his fight for justice.

Ken Partridge (82), of Ripponden Road, has developed the debilitating lung condition asbestosis — where inhaled asbestos dust damages the inner lung — because of work he carried out at a mill in the 1960s.

Now the former joiner is hoping that his former colleagues and people who worked at the mill at the time will be able to help in his battle for compensation.

Mr Partridge, who had trained as a joiner following his service in the Army at the end of the 1940s, said: “I worked for Newroyd Mills from 1963 to 1965. I distinctly remember a huge refurbishment job we did at the mill, where we fitted a whole new maple floor in the factory. We also carried out work in the basement at the same time, where I was part of the crew who constructed new shuttering for the boiler house.

“Because that job was part of a larger refurbishment, the boiler and pipework was being repaired or replaced, so the team doing that stripped off all the asbestos lagging. Although I wasn’t working directly with them, I was working right next to them.

“The air was thick with asbestos dust, but we had no breathing protection. Of course, back in those days we didn’t know just how dangerous asbestos was.”

Mr Partridge, who lost his wife in March, 2009 and has two grown-up children, had no idea the work that he’d carried out back then would lead to his developing asbestosis.

Lesley Mynett, an industrial disease specialist with Fentons Solicitors LLP, said “We urgently need his former colleagues — or anyone who worked at the mill during the mid 1960s —to come forward and confirm the fact that asbestos was prevalent in the basement boiler room.”

Anyone who can help is asked to contact Lesley Mynett on 0161-238 6417 or e-mail lesley.mynett@fentons.co.uk. All information will be treated in the strictest confidence.