A FORMER builder died from lung cancer caused by exposure to asbestos, an inquest was told.

The inquest heard that John Sutcliffe, 77, of Francis Avenue, Barrowford, came into contact with asbestos sheets every day as he made corrugated roofs for farm buildings.

He used to cut the sheets to size before nailing them to a wooden frame and would be left covered in dust, the inquest heard.

In a letter written before his death on March 23 this year, Mr Sutcliffe said he would often kneel on the asbestos sheets to drill holes in them with a hand drill, which in turn would create lots of dust.

He said the two places he worked did during his career did not have a sink so he could not wash his hands and he would often have to eat his lunch with his hands covered in asbestos dust.

East Lancashire pathologist Dr Abdul Al-Daoud carried out a post-mortem on Mr Sutcliffe.

He said he found evidence of two types of cancer with a tumour in the periphery of the lung and evidence of a tumour removed from the stomach.

It was explained to the inquest that similar tumours in the lung can be caused by smoking but this was not the case with Mr Sutcliffe as he had stopped smoking when he was 35 years old.

Dr Al-Daoud said: “It is my findings that the tumour in Mr Sutcliffe’s lung was primary and not secondary to that in his stomach.

“In my opinion I would say the most likely cause of Mr Sutcliffe’s tumour was asbestos exposure.”

East Lancashire coroner Richard Taylor recorded a verdict of industrial disease explaining that the cancer that killed Mr Sutcliffe was caused by exposure to asbestos.