A WIDOWER is searching for former shipmates after his wife died from asbestos-related cancer - which she may have caught while washing his clothes.

David Parker, 63, is planning to sue over the death of his 68-year-old wife Sylvia last year from mesothelioma, a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos dust.

Mr Parker believes his wife contracted the deadly disease from regularly washing the clothes he wore as a fireman on the British Rail passenger ferry Sarnia, which sailed between Weymouth and the Channel Islands in the 1960s and early 1970s.

He said: "I worked in the engine room where all the pipes were lagged with asbestos. On a steam ship like that, especially in rough seas, you would be knocked against the lagging and the dust would get into your clothes.

"When my wife was diagnosed, we didn't have a clue what caused the disease. But after the inquest, the coroner's officer told me that merchant seamen were particularly at risk of getting it.

"Those days you didn't have uniforms or boiler suits, I just wore jeans and a shirt. When I came home from the ship Sylvia would wash them for me.

"We didn't have a clue that asbestos was dangerous then. I can't describe what it is like to have lost my partner of 40 years."

Mr Parker, who is now a long-distance lorry driver and lives in Swindon, wants people who used to work on the Sarnia to come forward and help with his compensation claim against British Rail.

He lived on Portland and in Weymouth when he had a job on the Sarnia in 1966.

Mr Parker then worked on board the ship Black Ranger before moving to Swindon, where he married Sylvia in 1969.

His solicitor, Brigitte Chandler, said a coroner recorded a verdict of death by industrial disease at Mrs Parker's inquest earlier this year.

She added: "This is rare but it has happened before that wives have died from mesothelioma after washing their husband's clothes that were in contact with asbestos.

"This was Mrs Parker's only exposure to asbestos.

"We would very much like to talk to anybody who has ever worked on this ship and can confirm the conditions in the boiler room."

* Anyone who can help should phone Brigitte Chandler on 01793 511055.