A PENSIONER'S death was caused by an industrial disease, a coroner has concluded.

An inquest into the death of Margaret Turley, 81, of Trinity Road, Greenfield, established that her death was likely to have been caused by exposure to asbestos during the course of her working life as a machinist.

John Gittins, coroner for North East Wales and Central, told the hearing at County Hall in Mold that he had been advised that Mrs Turley's death at Holywell Community Hospital was a "potentially asbestos-related death".

He read out a statement provided by Mrs Turley's solicitors Irwin Mitchell which she had written herself the summer before her death describing her working life.

It described how she had been employed at Courtaulds chemical fibre rayon mill factory in Flint from 1953 until the mid-1970s.

There Mrs Turley had been exposed to asbestos working between factories in Aber and Deeside. She described how the pipework overhead and on the walls had asbestos lagging and forklift trucks knocking on the pipes left them in poor condition. Workers would kick up the asbestos dust.

Mr Gittins added that in later life Mrs Turley, a widow and mother of four children, volunteered at a foodbank and in charity shops.

In November 2017 she became breathless and tired, and in early 2018 was diagnosed with a fluid build-up on her lungs.

Despite her lungs being drained they filled up with fluid again and Mrs Turley underwent a successful operation at the Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital but a biopsy showed she had mesothelioma

– "an asbestos related cancer".

Mrs Turley died at the hospital in Holywell on November 8, 2018.

Mr Gittins said: "I am satisfied the cause of death is mesothelioma and on balance of probabilities that was the result of being exposed to asbestos during her working life."

He recorded a conclusion of "death as a result of industrial disease".