Family seeks legal settlement after former Sellafield and ICI technician dies from asbestos-causing cancer

Supplied by the Rogers family

THE FAMILY of a former Sellafield and ICI technician who died from asbestos-causing cancer last year is appealing for former colleagues to come forward as witnesses in their legal pursuit of a settlement. 

Stanley Rogers worked at the Sellafield nuclear power plant in the 1970s, joining as an apprentice engineer at the age of 17, before moving to the ICI chemical plant in Teesside in 1978. His widow Joanne has begun a legal process after a post-mortem confirmed he died last May from mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer most often caused by exposure to asbestos. 

Joanne’s solicitors have now heard from a number of former Sellafield colleagues with possible information about how Stanley may have been exposed to asbestos in the site’s Calder Hall facility. They are also appealing to former ICI colleagues who worked alongside him at the Wilton plant from 1978 to 1981.

Typical mesothelioma legal proceedings seek to compensate families for loss of income, which is usually paid out by an employment liability insurance provider. However, the Rogers’ case is more complicated as Stanley was also a primary carer for Joanne, who has hereditary spastic paraplegia, a progressive neurological disorder causing muscle weakness that makes her wheelchair dependent. 

Joanne said: “He did everything for me. He helped me with so many aspects of daily life. He helped me dress, bathe, drove me everywhere and looked after all the jobs around the home.

“Since losing him, it’s incredibly difficult and I’m struggling without him. There are treatments and support that simply aren’t available on the NHS, and it’s hard to afford the help I now need. Any legal settlement won’t bring Stanley back, but it would make such a difference by making life a little easier and help me live independently.” Other family members are understood to have taken over Stanley’s care responsibilities since he died. 

Stanley died within six months of his diagnosis, meaning he was never able to provide evidence of his exposure to asbestos, making the legal process more challenging. He mostly worked as an instrument technician maintaining industrial equipment and lagged steam pipes, but the family said he wasn’t aware of his exposure until he began experiencing lung problems early last year. Simon Matthews, a senior associate solicitor at the Slater and Gordon law firm representing the family, said: “Even information that may seem minor or insignificant could prove vital in helping us establish the conditions workers were exposed to, and in securing the answers his family desperately needs.”

Married for 36 years, Joanne described Stanley as “the most loyal family man you could ever wish to meet”. Together they had two children and two grandchildren. “He adored them all, and they absolutely adored him. He was a devoted husband, dad and grandad and he just did everything for his family.”