RETIRED Bolton coal miner, Tom Pritchard, now suffering agonising pain due to the industrial injury, Vibration White Finger, has missed out on compensation due to an "unfair" loophole.

Eighty-year-old Mr Pritchard should have received more than £50,000 as he suffers the condition which now blights many ex-coal miners' lives.

Vibration White Finger causes pain due to years of weilding heavy industrial machines without protection.

Many can not straighten their hands which shake constantly and are very painful.

Now, TUC campaigner, Alec McFadden, claims Mr Pritchard is among hundreds of Bolton and Leigh coal miners who are being turned away by the government because a loophole means they do not qualify.

The loophole means coal miners who finished work before 1973 are unable to claim compensation.

Mr Pritchard, who started work aged 14 at Roscoe's Pit, Little Hulton, spent 22 years "in the bowels of the earth."

The widower, who lost a finger in a horrific accident whilst mining a seam when he was just 25 in the Wheatsheaf Pit, said: "In those days you earned your money. You worked seven days a week, there was no such thing as weekend. You risked your life every day.

"You couldn't get time off and we had no fancy machines like they do nowadays. I left in 1973 due to ill-health.

"I've certainly been through the mill like hundreds of miners who worked down the pits before 1973.

"I think miners who worked in these conditions should have compensation. There shouldn't be a deadline on it."

Campaigning Mr McFadden echoed these sentiments adding: "The TUC provides assistance to millions of ex-miners and their families .

"I believe that every miner that has been down a pit should get compensation. In our view, Mr Pritchard should have got well over £50,000 and we are putting pressure on the government to make sure that they change this loophole.

"No one knows why the deadline date 1973 was chosen. It was plucked from mid-air as a cut off date. It's very unfair.

"Bolton, Salford and Leigh have hundreds of ex-miners and many are suffering from illness such as emphysema and Vibration White Finger.

"Many people have crumbled being left to cope without compensation."

At the moment only 86,000 out of an estimated 150,000 with the condition in Britain, caused through repeated use of pneumatic tools, have submitted claims.

For more information ring the campaign hotline on 0500 501123.

The National Union of Mineworkers, Lancashire Area, have pointed out that the deadline to register claims for the condition has not been extended as previously reported in the media, and remains Friday, September 29.

Local ex-miners are asked to ring the NUM Lancashire Freephone 0800 073 2101 to clear up any confusion and for further advice on benefit claims. Unfair