Hundreds of people have died from mesothelioma dubbed the Swindon Disease because of its link to asbestos in the town's former railway works.

Yet there is no memorial to the people who died attempting to earn an honest living. Today the Evening Advertiser opens the debate on how the workers should be remembered. ANDY BLIZZARD reports.

THEY call it the Swindon Disease, an illness that has already claimed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives in the town, and is set to take thousands more.

From railway workers to builders to a mum-of-six who inhaled asbestos particles while washing her husband's overalls, no-one in Swindon seems immune from mesothelioma an agonising form of cancer brought on by exposure to asbestos.

When the town's railway works were in their prime, asbestos particles used to blow around like snowflakes, and workers used to throw asbestos 'snowballs' at each other, with no idea they might be risking their lives.

Already, Swindon is one of the worst mesothelioma black spots in the country. Railwaymen and their grieving families have won millions of pounds in compensation for their suffering.

With the number of mesothelioma deaths set to rocket in the decades to come, the amount of compensation paid out is set to follow suit.

Yet money only counts for so much. The Evening Advertiser also believes the time has come to honour the people who died, just because they were working hard to make Swindon the place it is today.

We believe there should be a permanent memorial to the victims of mesothelioma, and already families of the victims and town leaders are pledging their support.

Many companies in Swindon continue to benefit from the work of the railwaymen First Great Western has inherited the name and the traditional link between our town and the railways. The Designer Outlet Village has taken on the premises and now owns a thriving shopping centre. Legal companies in Swindon represent hundreds of railway workers and their families. These companies have also agreed that a memorial is needed.

Former Swindon mayor and railwayman Arthur Archer lost his own father to mesothelioma, and remembers asbestos "just blowing around the workshops in the wind with nobody taking any notice of it."

He backs our memorial plan, and says he would like to see it in the town's Steam museum, next to the railwaymen's own memorials to colleagues who died in the First and Second World Wars.

Brigitte Chandler, one of the country's leading industrial injury lawyers, has single-handedly won millions of pounds in compensation for Swindon's mesothelioma victims.

"A memorial is a very good idea, particularly in Swindon, because so many have died here," she said.

"I've been doing these claims for 15 to 20 years, and every year I have several hundred of them, so I can imagine the number of deaths runs into the thousands.

"Many of them are from the railway works."

Miss Chandler's firm, Thring Townsend, has also pledged to contribute some of the costs of a memorial, while the heir to the Great Western Railway Company, First Great Western, has also pledged to consider any request for help.

Also backing the plan is Swindon council leader Mike Bawden, who said: "My wife's family were in the railways for five generations.

"It's a good idea, and I would be happy to listen to any proposals."

Relatives of the dead also offered their support, including Anette Matthews, whose husband Michael, a former coach finisher at the railway works, died of mesothelioma last year.

"There's an awful lot of people who have died from it. My husband was a fit bloke who used to cycle, but he just went like that."

Janice Kell, whose coach builder father Derek Evans died from mesothelioma a year ago, aged 65, also thought a memorial to workers like him was a good idea.

"I would say yes, because so many people have died of it," she said.

Miss Chandler said the victims of mesothelioma deserve to be remembered for two reasons the sheer number of victims that will fall foul of the disease and the suffering they and their families go through.

"It's an extremely unpleasant disease one of the worst ways in which to die," she said.

"I've had clients who've been screaming out in pain, who have to take more and more morphine, and start to hallucinate.

"They lose so much weight they look as if they've come out of a concentration camp by the time they've finished."

Miss Chandler said even official predictions said the mesothelioma death rate could increase six fold over the next decade before it finally started to fall.

"At the moment, the Government statistics say 1,500 will die across the country every year," she said.

"They think it's going to go up to 10,000 a year over the next 10 years because it takes time for the asbestosis to develop, and Swindon is a particularly bad spot.

"The rail works was the main employer in town, with 16,000 men working there at any one time, and there was also a constant turnover of workers.

"The problem is going to get worse."

What do you think?

Would you support a memorial to the Swindon cancer victims? What should it be and where should it go? Contact Andy Blizzard on 01793 528144, ext 338 or email editor@newswilts.co.uk.