Colin Gray was exposed to asbestos while working as an electrical engineer in his mid 20s. Colin was diagnosed with mesothelioma and sadly passed away in 2013 at the age of 66.
Cancer caused by work claims the lives of 666,000 people a year worldwide.
Many employers and workers are unaware of the impact of carcinogenic exposures. IOSH’s No Time to Lose campaign aims to get the causes of occupational cancer more widely understood and help businesses take action.
Find out more and get free resources at
http://tinyurl.com/NoTimeToLose-website
http://tinyurl.com/NTTL-Colin-transcript
Film transcript
My name is Colin Gray. I’m 66 years old. I’m married for 41 years. I have two daughters and two grandchildren. I left school at the age of 16 and went into electrical engineering, and was involved in all aspects of wiring. Unbeknown to me all the pipework within factories are lagged with asbestos. So, whilst never knowingly worked with it, I did pick up fibres in my early- to mid-20s, which took 30 to 40 years to come out and to expose themselves into a cancer. This came as a total shock. Apart from a bit of breathlessness, I’ve never had any illnesses. A GP is a place I never go. And I was diagnosed with an incurable disease, which means that I am now living a death sentence with an unknown time. The surgeon who diagnosed it informed me that I’d got less than a year to live. This came as a total shock, a surprise, as I was feeling reasonably healthy. And I was left with the problem of informing the rest of the family. This was a hard thing to do, a very difficult thing to do, and there was a lot of tears shed. I live in this world with an unknown ending under a death sentence. And I had a major operation not long after the diagnosis, which is aimed at buying me time, an unknown amount of time, if it buys me any at all. The reality of it sets in from time to time when you play with your grandchildren, which in this case are ages two and three, and you realise that you’re not going to see them grow up. Will I see them even go to school? I don’t know. So I live in this unknown world caused by asbestos fibres. This has taken 30 to 40 years to show itself within my body. Things now, I’m sure, are slightly different and your employer should supply you with all the necessary safety equipment. You have a responsibility to use it. You need to wear and use the safety equipment that’s available to you if you don’t want to finish up like me.
