THE widow of a Bolton man who died after contracting CJD, the human form of mad cow disease, today welcomed a multi-million-pound compensation package.

But Maria Wood, of Baker Street, Kearsley, said the pay-out would not bring her husband Graham back.

Leaked details of a report out on Thursday reveal the Government is preparing to pay out millions to the 84 people in Britain believed to have contracted the disease.

Mrs Wood said: "I am looking forward to Thursday and just finding out what conclusions have been made and then putting it all behind me.

"The compensation pay-out won't bring back my husband, but it is still good news.

"My two daughters are having to read all sorts about CJD at the moment and it is awful for them with the build-up to Thursday.

"What happened to Graham was a nightmare -- I never knew what was wrong with him until he had died and they carried out a post-mortem. "

The father-of-two is believed to have contracted Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease after eating infected meat.

Graham, who was a British Aerospace engineer at Lostock, was at first thought to be suffering from flu.

But the 39-year-old soon became confined to a wheelchair, lost the ability to feed himself and eventually lost his sight and the power of speech.

Doctors told his family that he was suffering from depression and stress even up to four months before his death.

He died in October 1998.

Mrs Wood is now keen to read the findings of the report out this week following an extensive national inquiry into BSE.

She gave evidence at the inquiry chaired by Lord Phillips earlier this year.

Insiders from the Government leaked details of the report over the weekend.

It is scathing about the competence of many of those in charge of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from the mid-1980s to 1996.

Former ministers from the previous Conservative government along with civil servants are set to face strong criticism for not acting quickly enough on the BSE crisis.