need to know
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Elaine Ellery died of cancer linked to asbestos exposure when she was a child, court heard on February 16
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Ellery died in a hospice in England in August 2025 at the age of 67
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Throughout her childhood, she would hold her father in his overalls and visit the factory where he worked.
A woman in the UK has died from an aggressive form of cancer after decades of exposure to asbestos.
According to local media reports, Elaine Ellery died at the Priscilla Bacon Lodge Hospice on August 6, 2025, at the age of 67. Oriental Daily Press reported. The mother-of-two, who lives in Norfolk, eastern England, had not been exposed to asbestos in her adult life.
However, a Feb. 16 hearing at Norfolk Coroner’s Court concluded she died from “mesothelioma industrial disease,” which was caused by dangerous fibers she was exposed to throughout her childhood, the court confirmed to PEOPLE.
According to the Mayo Clinic, mesothelioma “is a cancer that begins in the growth of mesothelial cells, a thin layer of tissue that covers many internal organs.”
According to the medical center, “it most commonly occurs in the tissue surrounding the lungs.” “Mesothelioma can also occur in the abdomen, tissue around the heart and around the testicles.”
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“When I was in junior high school [elementary school] Those were the days we went home at lunchtime,” Ellery said in a statement released before her death. Oriental Daily Press. “My father also came home from get off work at lunchtime and we had a meal together.”
Ellery’s father worked at a factory from 1949 until he was fired in 1974, the outlet reported. When he returns home to Bedfordshire during the day, he is still wearing his work clothes.
“I didn’t pay much attention to his work clothes, but I remember he just wore his own clothes to work that were appropriate for labor duties,” Ellery said. “My father and I were very close and as soon as he came home, I would go up to him and give him a hug.”
“I was very young and I was excited when my dad came home,” she added.
The clothes may have contained asbestos fibers, which Ellery was exposed to when he hugged him and when he helped his mother with laundry, according to a court hearing.
From the age of 8, she also began visiting the factory for annual Christmas parties.
“I’m always happy to go there because there’s a substance there that looks like snow on the ground,” she said. Oriental Daily Press. “It wasn’t snow but it looked similar and in hindsight I believe it must have been asbestos left on the ground from when the factory was operating.”
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Her father, who died in 1983, had been diagnosed with cancer a year earlier and later with an industrial illness caused by asbestos exposure. He was 59 years old at the time, daily mail reported.
The use of blue and brown asbestos was banned in the UK in 1985, while white asbestos was used until 1999. According to the British government website GOV.UK, this hazardous material may still be present in any house or building built before 2000.
Ellery was diagnosed with mesothelioma in October 2024, although her work history showed no occupational exposure to asbestos. The mother of two retired as a personal assistant in April 2019.
“She died as a child from exposure to asbestos,” district coroner Johanna Thompson told the hearing. Oriental Daily Press.
“I would like to express my sincerest condolences to Ellery. I am so sorry for your passing,” Thompson said to Ellery’s family.
Read the original article on People
