Grandfather, 64, told asbestos-related cancer was chest infection: ‘Killer dust fell on me like snow’
A grandfather-of-five has been diagnosed with incurable cancer linked to asbestos—more than forty years after he was first exposed to the toxic dust.
Steven Kenny, 64, worked at the Old Bank of England site in London during the late 1970s, where he says safety measures were non-existent—despite there being huge amounts of asbestos.
Mr Kenny said: ‘Asbestos was falling around us like snow. We were eating our sandwiches in there and everything.
‘There was no safety measures—it wasn’t a thing like it is now.
‘I suppose we knew [the asbestos] wasn’t good for you, but I don’t think we knew how harmful it really was at the time.
‘There were lots of other jobs that had asbestos, but nothing like this. The dust was all over. We were just smothered in it for weeks.’
He had no idea he had developed mesothelioma, a cancer caused by exposure to the fibrous mineral, until last summer—more than four decades after the job.
Asbestos stays inside the lungs, with mesothelioma commonly not developing until decades after exposure.
Steven Kenny was exposed to asbestos which ‘fell like snow’ while working at the Old Bank of England in the late 1970s
Mr Kenny with his wife Debbie
The disease, which is incurable, takes around 20 years to develop, but some cases are only discovered 50 or even 60 years after the initial asbestos exposure.
Symptoms of mesothelioma in the lungs include chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, fever, persistent cough, loss of appetite and unexplained weight loss.
It can also develop in the lining of the stomach, where it causes stomach pain or swelling, nausea, loss of appetite, unexplained weight loss, diarrhoea and constipation.
Up until his diagnosis, doctors told him that his symptoms were simply that of a chest infection.
His heartbroken wife Debbie, 58, explained: ‘They thought he had a chest infection, but it wasn’t going away.’
Within seven weeks of his cancer diagnosis, Mr Kenny received immunotherapy and is now on his third round of chemotherapy.
However, there is no cure for mesothelioma, and the future looks bleak.
Mrs Kenny added: ‘We are on borrowed time. As a family, we feel like we have been cheated.
Mr Kenny as a younger man at his first wedding—lawyers hope this photo might jog some of his former colleagues’ memories
‘This was our time to start enjoying life, but that has all been taken away.
‘We have worked and given a nice home to our kids.
‘I’m worried sick every time we go away that Steve’s going to be ill. It’s not the same.
‘We’ve had to cut holidays short because he became ill.
‘Steve is the strongest person out of all of us. We’ve got to make the best of what we’ve got.
‘He’s putting on a brave face for his family… It’s horrible realising he can’t do the things he used to do.’
She added that paying out for health insurance was the ‘best decision’ they had ever made, believing her husband ‘would have died’ before being seen on the NHS.
Mr Kenny has instructed lawyers to track down who is responsible for the alleged lack of safety measures in place at the site.
Mr and Mrs Kenny and their family now feel like they’re living on ‘borrowed time’
He says that at other sites, specialists would come in and remove asbestos before works started—but there was never any mention of safety measures at the Old Bank of England site.
‘No one said anything. We bagged [the asbestos] up in black bags and an open-back lorry took it away.’
The legal team are appealing for others who worked alongside him at the old Fleet Street site to come forward with information that could help.
Ewan Tant, a partner at Leigh Day representing Mr Kenny said: ‘We have found an insurer for MRC&S but only from 1984 onwards—after the period of Steve’s exposure to asbestos.
‘The appeal is to determine who had control of the building site at the Old Bank of England where Steve was working in the late 70s.
‘Asbestos was certainly known to be dangerous at that time.
‘Mesothelioma has been known about since the 1960s. The number of cases has been at a very high level for decades – there are over 2,000 new cases per year.
‘There was a thought that we were going to see a peak pretty soon, but there has been no drop.
‘If we find the contractor in charge, we may be able to bring a case against them.
‘It is devastating that anyone has time taken away from them because of work they did 30 or 40 years ago.’
