THE widow of a worker who died of an asbestos-related disease today welcomed a court ruling which paves the way for dozens of Bolton victims to receive compensation.

But she said she and fellow claimants have been left angry and frustrated by the legal wrangling which has seen hundreds of victims die before their cases came to court.

Eileen Jamieson watched her husband, Robert, degenerate from an active, healthy man to a housebound patient needing round-the-clock care. He was one of an estimated 2,500 people who contracted the disease in the North-west, a figure which includes dozens from Bolton.

Experts have predicted that by 2010, 10,000 people a year will be dying of the terminal asbestos cancer, mesothelioma.

Bolton, a once heavily industrialised area, is one of the black spots for the disease. Asbestos was common in the building trade until the 1970s.

Mr Jamieson, who died in February 2000, aged 52, was an apprentice joiner in the 1960s.

He was exposed to asbestos while working for three building companies in Greater Manchester and was told he had mesothelioma 10 months before his death.

Mrs Jamieson said: "He developed pneumonia in 1997 and we later found out that it was the onset of mesothelioma.

"The whole family was stunned when the illness struck him. There was nothing anyone could do except watch as he gasped for breath. It was frightening for us so it must have been unbearable for him. We all knew he would die."

Mr Jamieson had difficulty breathing because his lungs had become filled with fluid and a tumour had put pressure on his heart.

He began legal action against his three former employers but the claim suffered a setback when a Court of Appeal ruling denied compensation to victims who could not pinpoint which one of several employers was responsible for their illness.

However, that decision was overturned last week, meaning insurance companies are now likely to have to pay out up to £8 billion to victims. Mrs Jamieson, aged 53, from Kearsley, added: "Robert died believing we would receive compensation. For the last 10 months of his life, he devoted himself to pursuing the claim.

"All we want -- and all Robert wanted -- was for somebody to be held accountable."

Gill Owen, a solicitor at the Manchester office of Thompsons Solicitors, which is dealing with Mrs Jamieson's case, said: "We welcome the decision, which at last restores some sense of justice to the victims of the asbestos industry."