When Lt Col Crawford Harvey’s wife Jacqueline died at the age of 77 from mesothelioma – a terminal cancer caused by asbestos – he remembered all the faded military quarters they had shared during his 39 years of service.
Could she have been exposed to the deadly fibres in one of those?
‘When people ask me what she was like, I sum her up by describing what she loved – family, fun, flowers, sewing, dogs and friends,’ he says. ‘She was wonderful.’
Lt Col Harvey, 77, didn’t think life could get any worse after losing Jacqueline in 2022 after 50 years of marriage. He’d never previously heard of mesothelioma, which kills most of those diagnosed within a year. She had lasted about a year and a half.
But then, six months ago, he was diagnosed with it, too.
