A HOSPITAL nurse who is dying from cancer has launched a compensation claim against her former employers for £200,000 at the High Court.

Catherine Potter, 62, claims that she was exposed to deadly asbestos dust and fibres when she worked as a cleaner at the old St Helens Hospital for five years from 1979.

She has since developed malignant mesothelioma, which is cancer of the tissues surrounding her lungs.

Ms Potter says she used to clean passages in the hospital, which were lagged with asbestos as well as the equipment room.

In her writ, it states that workmen would be called in to patch up the lagging, while work carried on as normal around them.

As part of her job, she alleges that she would brush up the asbestos dust and fibres after they finished their work.

After five years as a cleaner, Ms Potter became a health care assistant and after spells working at Newton Cottage Hospital and Peasley Cross Day Centre, she returned to St Helens Hospital as a nursing auxiliary, where she spent another ten years.

She maintains that conditions there had not changed and maintenance work carried out still disturbed asbestos dust and fibres.

The writ goes on to claim that she wasn’t warned about the dangers of asbestos or given any breathing protection.

She first noticed chest problems in Christmas 2009 and was told she had mesothelioma in July last year.

Ms Potter claims that the hospital authorities were negligent, exposing her to a major risk of fatal injury without protection, failed to give her breathing equipment, failed to take adequate care for her safety and failed to give her a safe place and system of work.

She also alleges her employers negligently failed to take adequate care for her safety and continued to employ her in work which constantly exposed her to the risks of asbestos.

Ms Potter’s solicitor Patrick Walsh, partner and expert in industrial diseases at Manchester law firm Pannone, said: “The NHS Trust is disputing that our client was exposed to asbestos, despite the fact that we have evidence that she was.

“It would be extremely helpful if anyone who worked at St Helens Hospital, particularly Bishop and Pilkington wards in the 1970s and 1980s can contact me on 0161 909 1588 or email patrick.walsh@pannone.co.uk.”

A spokesperson for St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust responded: “This case relates to the late 1970s.

“There is currently no substantive evidence to suggest the claimant was harmfully exposed to asbestos during this time.”