Nursing career ‘is killing me’
Former nurse Margaret Forster devoted 38 years to caring for the sick. Now she fears it will cost her life.
The gran-of-two was given a year to live after being diagnosed with an asbestos-related lung cancer.
Margaret, 68, believes she developed the incurable condition mesothelioma after being exposed to asbestos dust at hospitals in Sunderland.
She said: “I feel disgruntled because I’ve worked all those years in the NHS helping patients to get better and now I’ve been the victim. I loved nursing.”
Margaret, of Fulwell, believes she came into contact with asbestos dust in basements while at the old Sunderland Royal Infirmary, Monkwearmouth Hospital and Sunderland Eye Infirmary.
Margaret’s husband George, 67, - a retired colliery electrical engineer - , has been battling a form of cancer, lymphoma, for the past seven years.
The couple were stunned when Margaret was diagnosed with mesothelioma in May last year.
After suffering from a persistent cough, tests showed she had fluid on the lung, and further checks detected cancerous cells, which later turned out to be mesothelioma.
She said: “It was devastating. The first thing I thought of was that I won’t see my grandchildren grow up.
“It’s a terminal illness. I was given a year to live last May.”
Margaret had heard of mesothelioma - more commonly found among people who worked in heavy industry - after she and George lost a close friend to the illness 12 years ago. The former shipyard plumber died at the age of 57.
Margaret had six sessions of chemotherapy at Sunderland Royal Hospital, ending last October, but the illness is taking its toll.
She said: “I get very tired. I can’t do things I used to. If I go upstairs I can’t breathe very well.”
Margaret has two sons Christopher, 38, and Steven, 37, and two grandchildren Olivia, four, and two-year-old Callum.
Margaret knew she wanted to be a nurse from the age of just five, after ending up in hospital on several occasions as an accident-prone child.
She worked at the old Sunderland Royal Infirmary, in D
urham Road, between 1956 and 1962 and believes she was exposed to asbestos dust from poorly maintained pipe insulation.
She says the pipes in the basement, which she regularly had to visit, were insulated with asbestos lagging that crumbled when disturbed.
She also worked at the Sunderland Eye Infirmary, on Queen Alexandra Road, between 1962 and 1969 and between 1988 and 1994, although asbestos had been removed during the second period.
Margaret also worked at Monkwearmouth Hospital, on Newcastle Road, between 1973 and 1988, including the Williamson Ward 2, the men’s orthopaedic ward, and on ward, the ladies’ orthopaedic ward.
She said she had to go to the basement regularly during her shift to get splints or wheelchairs and claims it was there that she was exposed to asbestos dust.
Mesothelioma can develop when asbestos dust, containing deadly fibres, are inhaled.
Source: http://www.sunderlandecho.com