THE founder of a Furness support group for people with asbestos-related disease is to take a central role in a national day of action.Dr Helen Clayson will be addressing an international conference about the treatment of mesothelioma as part of Action Mesothelioma Day.
Mesothelioma is an invariably fatal tumour caused by exposure to asbestos, found mainly in the pleura – the surface lining of the lung cavity – for which there is no cure.
Dr Clayson, who is medical director at St Mary’s Hospice, in Ulverston, and a founder member of Barrow Asbestos-Related Disease Support group, will be lecturing at the London Mesothelioma conference today and at another mesothelioma event in Newcastle on Friday.
She said: “Barrow has the highest incidence of mesothelioma in men in England.
“The management of distressing symptoms such as pain and breathlessness needs further research alongside investigation into treatments to prolong the lives of mesothelioma sufferers.
“BARDS supports unreservedly the call for the UK government to recognise its moral duty to provide funding for a National Centre for Asbestos-Related Diseases.”
Average life expectancy is approximately nine months, 2,039 people died from mesothelioma in 2005 and six people die from mesothelioma every day.
Estimated five-year survival rate is less than five per cent. At least 70,000 British people will develop mesothelioma in the next 30-40 years from past exposure to asbestos.
Mesothelioma has the second worst survival rate of all cancers but is the least researched of the top 20 cancers in the UK.
Tomorrow sufferers, their families, friends, MPs, doctors and nurses, will gather in city centres throughout the UK to call on the government to match the funding provided by the Australian Commonwealth Government of $6.2m to fund a National Centre for Asbestos Related Disease. News Source - North-West Evening Mail
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