VICTIMS of the so-called Swindon cancer, mesothelioma, have been dealt a potentially devastating blow by the Court of Appeal.

The court ruled that victims who worked with asbestos in more than one job and afterwards contracted the lung cancer would not be entitled to claim compensation from any of their employers.

It said that the widow of a Leeds man who died after working with asbestos for more than one firm could not prove that the fibres that killed him came from one defendant or the other.

And the decision, which upheld an earlier judgement in the High Court, could have serious consequences for scores of local mesothelioma sufferers pursuing similar court claims.

"This will be devastating news to many in the South West," said Brigitte Chandler, a Swindon-based industrial disease specialist with Thring Townsend solicitors.

"Companies who have negligently exposed workers to asbestos, resulting in mesothelioma, which is usually terminal, will now be able to get away scot free unless there is a successful appeal to the House of Lords."

Mesothelioma, which is incurable, is a cancer of the lung caused by exposure to asbestos.

Ms Chandler has claimed millions of pounds for local sufferers, many of whom came into contact with asbestos while working on engines and carriages at Swindon's railway works in the 1950s.

An inquest in Swindon last month blamed mesothelioma for the death of 66-year-old retired railwayman Derek Evans, from Common Platt, Purton.

Mr Evans was employed for 18 years as a coach builder, where one of his jobs was to scrape off asbestos from the inside of engines, and worked without breathing apparatus between 1955 and 1962.

In September last year, Mrs Chandler successfully sued British Rail Engineering for a large but undisclosed sum in damages on behalf of the family of Albert Higgs.

Mr Higgs, who died from asbestosis-related illnesses in May 1978, aged 77, was exposed to large quantities of asbestos dust for seven years at British Rail's workshops.

Ms Chandler also won tens of thousands for the family of William Howard, 63, who died in April 1999.

He worked for both a bodywork company and RJ Coley, a firm based in Oxford Road, Swindon, for whom he cut up metal pipes and boilers covered in asbestos.