TODAY would have been David and Susan Purnell’s 35th wedding anniversary.
Tragically, Mrs Purnell will be remembering the day alone after her husband died, aged 59 – a victim of working with asbestos.
When Mr Purnell started to get out of breath and struggled to walk very far in March 2008, he thought he just had to make an effort to live a healthier lifestyle.
But as he began to sweat profusely, and the symptoms got worse and worse, his wife took him to their GP. About a year later, he died at their home in Ashton.
The scaffolder had come into contact with asbestos in the 1970s, and it turned out that the symptoms were of mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer.
He was told he would not live to see Christmas that year, so when December 25 came around and he was still with them, his family were grateful for that one small miracle.
But it was a harrowing day for his wife, her mother, their two children, and two granddaughters.
“We knew that this would be his last Christmas,” said Susan, 54. “It was a very emotional day. David wanted to make a speech, but he brought everyone to tears.
“He thanked everyone and said some very moving things. He had even bought me a new wedding ring, because my original one was too small. It was so sad, and even worse to see him deteriorate over the next few months.
“We did a lot of talking as he lay in bed, day in, day out. We discussed his funeral arrangements, talked about everything. In the last week of his life he couldn’t even talk. I just sat with him, too afraid to sleep in case something happened.
“In his final weeks I promised him I would do what I could to help raise awareness of this terrible condition.”
When Mr Purnell first went to the doctors they thought it was a chest infection, and was prescribed antibiotics.
When the symptoms worsened, Mrs Purnell did her own research on the internet and found out about mesothelioma. When the couple returned to their GP to ask if it could be that, Mr Purnell was sent for an X-ray.
It was another few months before Mr Purnell was officially diagnosed with the disease, following a biopsy.
In the meantime he was in and out of hospital on a regular basis, until eventually he begged his wife to let him stay at home.
Mrs Purnell then nursed him at their home in Ashton until he died in April last year.
Her brother, also called David, had worked with Mr Purnell, but thankfully is not showing any symptoms of the disease.
Mrs Purnell has dedicated her time since her husband’s death to raising awareness of the devastating effects of asbestos.
A recent survey by the British Lung Foundation shows that nearly half of homeowners in the South West do not realise that asbestos was used as a building material in homes as recently as the 1990s.
Typically, asbestos can be found in materials such as floor tiles, toilet cisterns, textured ceiling coatings and linings of boiler cupboards
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