Mavis’ Story: Making a Change

Yet another heartbreaking story of an inspirational woman:

Mavis addresses Parliament: courtesy MN fb

From KentOnline by Jamie Bullen:

Dying wife Mavis Nye battles for change in law to speed up treatment for mesothelioma after husband worked with asbestos in Chatham Dockyard

A dying woman battling for a change in the law to speed up life-saving treatment has revealed washing her husband’s work clothes led to her deadly disease.

When doctors told Seasalter pensioner Mavis Nye she was suffering from mesothelioma she knew straight away it was the result of cleaning her husband’s clothes after returning from work at Chatham Dockyard.

The asbestos-related cancer was caused by shaking the dust-filled garments before breathing in lethal fibres which can cause cancerous cells to develop.

Her husband, Ray, worked for five years as a shipwright at the dockyard during the 1960s before he left the industry.

In 2009 she was given three months to live but the 72-year-old is fighting on spurred by calls for a new law to speed up urgent medical treatments.

In the past five years she has had chemotherapy at hospitals in London and Canterbury to prevent the cancer from growing, but there are no new treatments available after she began suffering allergic reactions.

Speaking at her home in Seasalter Lane, Mavis said she knew instantly her exposure to asbestos through washing clothes was the reason she had cancer.

She said: “I knew straight away. We thought Ray would get it because he’s lost all his mates he used to work with but the shock was it was me instead.

< READ FULL ARTICLE HERE >

On Tuesday, she traveled to Parliament with Lord Saatchi to launch a consultation on his medical innovations bill, introduced after the death of his wife from ovarian cancer in 2011.

She said: “History was made this week. The debate was blown wide open.

“With mesothelioma, it’s not an old man’s disease any more.”