Barbara Rose from Devizes has lost her husband to an asbestos disease and her sister’s husband was also diagnosed with the same disease the following month of. The family are in a state of shock at this double tragedy.
Ron Rose of Wick Lane, Devizes lost his battle with mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive cancer of the lining of the lung linked to asbestos exposure on 21 September 2014, aged 71.
His funeral is on Monday 6 October 2014 at 11:30am at West Wiltshire Crematorium. He was diagnosed with mesothelioma in June 2014 and was too poorly to give a full work history.
Before Ron became ill he was very fit and healthy and had just purchased a beautiful bungalow that he helped to renovate this with his son-in-law. Not long before his tragic diagnosis, he had just finished all of the painting and decorating for his new property where he was looking forward to spending his retirement with his wife, Barbara.
Ron was born in All Cannings and moved to Potterne after marrying his childhood sweetheart, Barbara on 3 April 1965. They had been looking forward to celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary next year.
Barbara said “we have been devastated at losing Ron to this asbestos disease. We had so much to look forward to, including our big celebration next year for our 50th wedding anniversary. The diagnosis came completely out of the blue when we were babysitting for our grandchildren in April 2014 when Ron suddenly noticed breathlessness”
“Ron had a lot of medical intervention in an attempt to relieve his pain, including a cordotomy under a general anaesthetic at Portsmouth Hospital (this is a surgical procedure that targets pain-conducting tracts in the spinal cord)”
“Unfortunately Ron developed a nasty infection following his biopsy and this meant that he spent much of time in hospital on intravenous antibiotics”
“Ron worked as a painter and decorator all of his life from the early 1960’s in the local area and surrounding villages for many different employers, including Crown Estates, W E Chivers & Sons Ltd and Gaigers, right up until his retirement in 2008. He remembered ripping off asbestos roofs at Lyneham”
“We are hoping that his former workmates may remember working with him and remember some of the asbestos Ron would have come across in his work.
Ron worked for these companies and a few others during the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s. As a painter it is possible that Ron used the asbestos based portafleck spray-on paints spray-on paints. It is also likely that Ron worked alongside carpenters at W.E Chivers & Sons Ltd”
Ron had so much to look forward to and our large family will miss him dreadfully. We have four children, Mark, Paula, Donna and Johnathan and seven grandchildren, age ranges between 9 to 27. We have one great granddaughter aged three. The family are all absolutely devastated at Ron’s asbestos related disease death. Ron has one brother, Len who still lives in the village.
“ For the family this is particularly hard as my brother-in-law was also diagnosed with mesothelioma not long after Ron’s diagnosis. My sister and I are in a state of shock that we will both be losing our husbands to this dreadful asbestos disease”
The family have instructed specialist asbestos disease solicitors at Novum Law. If anyone can help in any way then please contact Solicitor Helen Grady on 0800 884 0555