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We need answers over silent killer

Mar 8 2009 by David Old, Sunday Sun

THE DEVASTATED family of a war veteran killed by asbestos-related cancer are appealing for help from his former colleagues.

James Peacock played a critical role in the Normandy landings and survived to tell the tale.

But he died from Mesothelioma — dubbed the silent killer — aged 86, in July last year.

Now his family want to find out how he came to contract the deadly disease.

They want to contact people who worked at Henry Foster Building Products, which later became Ferguson Foster Limited and then Ferguson Industrial Holdings Limited, which had sites in Northallerton, Bishop Auckland and Newcastle.

It is believed he inhaled significant levels of asbestos dust while working as a buildings supply manager for Henry Foster Building Products — a builders’ merchants in Northallerton — between 1967 and 1985.

His daughter, Jennifer McNally said: “James’s diagnosis was a complete and crushing surprise to us. He was an extremely brave man and managed to survive the horror of military service during the Second World War. He used to tell us stories about the landings on the beaches of Normandy.

“It is so very tragic that his days were ended because of the environment he worked so hard in after the war.”

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