THE widow of a former York Carriageworks employee today backed calls for a memorial to victims to the city's asbestos time bomb.

Pat Skelton was speaking for the first time about her husband Stephen's death last year at the age of 55 from the asbestos-related cancer, mesothelioma.

She told how the tragedy had deprived her of enjoying a retirement with Stephen, and deprived his son Nigel, 25, and daughter Dinah, 28, of a loving father. She said it was disgusting how workers at the Holgate Road factory had been exposed over decades to asbestos dust. "It's appalling," she said. "It should never have happened."

Pat, of Wilberfoss, contacted the Evening Press after reading how inquests had been held into the deaths from mesothelioma of other former carriageworks employees.

Stuart Marshall, the son of Tang Hall victim Albert, 89, has called for the names of all the victims to be inscribed on Holgate Arch, a 16ft tall steel sculpture put up at Holgate Park last year to commemorate the carriageworks.

Pat said: "It's a good idea. There isn't any memorial at the moment, and there should be something. It would be somewhere where people could go and remember their loved ones."

She said Stephen had worked as a coachbuilder at the carriageworks from 1964 until 1980, when he became an engineering lecturer at York College.

In the early years, he had been heavily exposed to asbestos dust. "They used to throw snowballs with it."

Then one day, he had seen men turning up with full protective clothing. "He couldn't understand why they were wearing it. They turned round and said it was because it was dangerous."

Stephen, who was a keen angler and supporter of York City Football Club, fell ill in October 2003, and died last September. An inquest into his death is pending.

Legal action in relation to his death is under way, but Pat said: "Whatever damages might be paid, it's not going to bring back my husband and the children's father."

Dinah said her brother was due to become a parent and she herself would be getting married this year in Jamaica, where her father spent his last holiday. "His death means he will never see his grandchildren," she said.

Updated: 08:22 Tuesday, March 08, 2005