Industrial diseases team attending International Women’s Day event to raise awareness of the impact of mesothelioma on women
Helen Childs and Jennifer Seavor of the Industrial Disease team will be supporting and attending Mesothelioma UK’s Ladies Lunch on Friday to launch their “Gendered Experience of Mesothelioma Study” – which they are also supporting.
Mesothelioma is still on the rise and it affects about 2,700 people in the UK every year, roughly 15% of whom are women. There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that women’s experience of diagnosis and treatment for mesothelioma, as well as their path through the justice system, is different to that of men, and the GEM study aims to explore the issue, with a view to making recommendations for improvements to the medical system to ensure any inequalities are ironed out.
Dr Angela Tod of Manchester is leading the study in collaboration with our local HASAG support group - and we are honoured to have also been asked to provide the legal input. At our study days we have impressed Mesothelioma UK with our knowledge of the issues surrounding claims for asbestos related illnesses, our understanding of the medicine, our passion and enthusiasm for this work – and our all female team!
Our financial support for the GEM study is made in memory of our lovely client Lydia Carey, who died of mesothelioma in November last year just before her claim went to a four day High Court Trial on liability. Lydia was just 60 when she died. Lydia had no exposure to asbestos in her own work, so when the doctors asked her if she had ever worked with asbestos she hadn’t. Lydia's family would like part of her legacy to be that this path is smoothed for other women as a result of the GEM study recommendations.
Helen Childs commented:
“We are proud to support Mesothelioma UK’s GEM study – which will hopefully improve the diagnosis of and treatment for women who develop mesothelioma. Only 40% of women describe exposure to asbestos in their own occupation and often their occupations involve more fleeting exposure to asbestos dust than traditional male jobs. As a result of the circumstances of exposure, and many law firms formulaic approach to assessing cases, we suspect many women do not pursue claims for compensation that would have had good prospects of success. Private funding – often through a legal claim – is the only way to access bespoke immunotherapy treatment, which can be hugely beneficial and life extending, and scores if not hundreds of women every year could be missing out”