{"id":748787,"date":"2026-08-25T02:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T02:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/748787\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T02:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T02:24:11","slug":"asbestos-cancer-killed-mum-in-her-40s-was-her-school-to-blame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/748787\/","title":{"rendered":"Asbestos cancer killed mum in her 40s \u2013 was her school to blame?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The retired science teacher, who spent her career working in Cardiff and Essex, had gone to see her GP about a shortness of breath thinking it could be &#8220;heart problems&#8221; before being given her diagnosis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The hospital said she could have contracted it 20 or 30 years before,&#8221; said her younger sister Helen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The horrible thing about mesothelioma is that you haven&#8217;t a clue that you&#8217;ve got it until it&#8217;s too late.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Helen said that as a biology teacher, Linda knew exactly what her diagnosis meant \u2013 but stayed &#8220;stoic&#8221; until the end.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">She died aged 82, 18 months after finding out about her mesothelioma.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Every one of us has been in buildings from time to time that have asbestos in them,&#8221; said Helen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Welsh Government said the safety of pupils and staff was of &#8220;paramount importance&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We continue to support local authorities through investment in school buildings, practical guidance and close collaboration with the Health and Safety Executive and Ystadau Cymru to ensure schools remain safe, modern and fit for purpose,&#8221; said a spokesperson. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Cardiff Council added that it had &#8220;robust and well-established&#8221; plans to manage asbestos in its buildings. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Council buildings are surveyed, asbestos records are maintained and regularly reviewed, and checks are carried out to monitor the condition of any known asbestos-containing materials,&#8221; said a spokesperson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We remain committed to providing safe environments for pupils, staff and visitors and will continue to manage asbestos in accordance with all current legal requirements and recognised best practice.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The retired science teacher, who spent her career working in Cardiff and Essex, had gone to see her&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":748788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-748787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}