'Dad would rather have healthy lungs than money' Pensioner wins compensation.

Byline: By ANDREW HIRST Head of Content

A PENSIONER ravaged by cancer due to asbestos exposure in Huddersfield 50 years ago has won a pounds 145,000 damages payout at London's High Court.

And the insurance company that must pay out will also have to stump up a further pounds 40,000 in legal costs.

Grandad Colin Gardner - who lived all his life in Bradley until about 10 years ago - has undergone 12 months' intensive chemotherapy and experimental surgery to combat the cancer raging through his body.

But the 66-year-old was unable to attend court because doctors are investigating whether his mesothelioma - a cancer of the lungs notorious for its slowness to develop and the agony endured by its victims - has returned despite his past year of hell. His 37-year-old daughter, Angela Allan-Burns, said: "No-one has won in this - my dad would far rather have healthy lungs and life than the money.

But he feels justice has been done."

Mr Gardner - who lives in Leeds with his partner of 10 years, Carol Exley - worked as a young plumbing apprentice for Huddersfield-based C Watson and Sons Ltd between 1957 and 1961.

Angela - who has fond memories of growing up at the family home on Bradley Road - said: "My grandmother, Mary, remembers Colin coming home with his overalls covered in white dust and he said he used to shovel the stuff. That was the asbestos, but it takes a long time to take hold in the lungs.

"She used to hand wash his overalls and suffered from bronchitis all her life before she died several years ago."

Her grandfather - also called Colin - is no longer alive.

Angela has an older sister, 39-year-old Caroline. Angela's sons are seven-year-old Louis and three-year-old Henry and Caroline's son is Charles, also aged three.

Angela said that her father was diagnosed with lung cancer in November 2007.

He was so fit the surgeons gave him the option of trying radical surgery to remove his lung and diaphragm - and he underwent the operation at Castle Hill Hospital in Hull.

It has taken him a year to recover from such a massive operation, but sadly doctors broke bad news to him only last Friday that it seems the cancer has now spread to his stomach.

The devastated family are waiting for the full diagnosis.

Judge Sir Robert Nelson, sitting in the High Court, heard that Mr Gardner had to bring his case to court because insurance giants, Royal and Sun Alliance Insurance Plc, disputed claims that they were the company's insurers in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

But the judge accepted "compelling" evidence from C Watson and Sons Ltd's executive director, Craig Watson, who said the firm had been insured "for yonks" by Royal and Sun Alliance, or its predecessors. Mr Watson's evidence was backed up by an insurance broker.

The company has been dormant since the mid 1980s.

Sir Robert ordered the insurance company to pay Mr Gardner pounds 145,000 damages, plus his legal costs of fighting the case, estimated at more than pounds 40,000.

Angela said she felt angry with the insurers, who she accused of "trying to get out of their responsibilities when they have had their premiums."

CAPTION(S):

COMPENSATION VICTORY: Former plumber Colin Gardner with his partner, Carol (second left), son-in-law Lee and daughter, Angela, just two weeks before his major cancer operation, and (left) with Angela