The wife and daughter of an “amazing” and “selfless” York man are to probe his death from asbestos-related cancer almost two years ago.

John Chapman’s family is working with lawyers to determine if his illness was linked to his career as a gas engineer.

Mr Chapman died aged 77 on December 16, 2022, from mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung associated with exposure to asbestos, after being diagnosed with the illness the previous month.

He worked as a gas engineer for 35 years and lived in Strensall where he was also a parish councillor.

Mr Chapman had always enjoyed good health but this changed in 2020 when he noticed he was unexpectedly losing wait.

He started coughing and by March 2022 this developed into breathlessness. His condition continued to deteriorate until his diagnosis.

Following his death, Mr Chapman’s wife Joyce Chapman, 78, and daughter Jane Thorn, 52, instructed specialist asbestos-related disease lawyers at Irwin Mitchell to investigate his illness and if it was linked to his work history.

Before he died Mr Chapman told his wife he believed he may have been exposed to asbestos, an Irwin Mitchell spokesperson said.

His job included working with boards and on pipework which, they said, may have contained the hazardous material.

“John would also work on boilers and there would be a considerable amount of dust and debris generated from working alongside these materials,” the spokesperson added.

'An amazing husband and dad'

Mrs Chapman met her husband at school and they married in 1959. She described him as an “an amazing husband and dad”, saying he “loved his job but was passionate about so much in life and was committed to making things better where he could”.

“It’s still so hard for Jane and I to accept that John is gone,” she said.

“Even now, his loss still hasn’t really sunk in. Looking back the weight loss was a warning sign that something wasn’t right and as the cough developed the following year, he went downhill from there.

“John was a strong man but it was terrible to see him suffer in those final months. No one deserves that, particularly not a wonderful man like John.”

Mrs Chapman added: “John had a selflessness that you don’t find often and his death has left us heartbroken. He was still relatively young and I thought we had so much more time together.”

Oliver Collett, the expert asbestos-related disease lawyer at Irwin Mitchell supporting the family, said they are “understandably still coming to terms” with Mr Chapman’s death.

“We continue to see too many families torn apart by asbestos-related diseases and the devastation they cause,” he said.

“While nothing can bring John back we’re determined to support Joyce and Jane in their search for answers on how he came to be exposed to the asbestos that claimed his life.”