A WIDOW, whose husband died of cancer after years of working with asbestos, can now fight for justice after a landmark legal ruling opened the gateway to claiming compensation for his death.

Marie Wignall's husband Victor died in September last year -- ten months after being diagnosed with Mesothelioma, a cancer which can be caused by inhaling asbestos.

But due to a law which prevented people claiming compensation if they had worked for more than one asbestos-related firm, Marie could not be recompensed for her husband's death.

A ruling by the House of Lords last Thursday means 61-year-old Marie can now make a claim against the firms where her late husband worked.

The ruling overrides the Court of Appeal's decision last December which meant that families of sufferers of asbestos-related diseases who had died as a result of their illness could not claim compensation.

Marie, of Kingsmead, Chorley, said: "Now we can start fighting.

"I'm glad about the ruling, yet I feel sadness of knowing that he will never know."

Victor first came into contact with asbestos when he worked as an apprentice joiner in Chorley in his late teens and early twenties. He even used to saw through the lethal substance with a circular saw.

Marie said: "It was a death sentence.

"He loved the outdoor life and was a strapping man. He also loved his work.

"After the diagnosis he found it very difficult to talk about it. He went into himself. He would not discuss his disease with anyone including me."

Victor, who had been suffering from breathlessness and weakness, first visited Chorley Hospital as an out-patient in November two years ago but doctors admitted him immediately and he spent seven weeks on a ward while tests were carried out. Victor was diagnosed with an inoperable tumour and died just under a year later.