A grandmother is battling an incurable cancer she contracted after being exposed to deadly asbestos while rehearsing for a school play as a child.
A Childhood Rehearsal with Deadly Consequences
Rose Hall, now 66, was just 11 years old when she unwittingly inhaled toxic fibres while preparing for a production of the musical Half A Sixpence at Allerton Grange school in Leeds in the 1970s. She recalls going under the stage where props were stored, a space later found to contain asbestos. "I was a child, I didn't know asbestos was there," said the mother-of-two.
Ms Hall is among what campaigners claim could be thousands of former pupils who have developed mesothelioma, a lethal cancer caused by asbestos exposure, decades after their time at school. She received a diagnosis in 2019 and is about to begin chemotherapy. "I'm fighting this on my own, so I'm scared," she admitted. "I get a bit tearful."
The Legal Battle and a Hidden Legacy
After initially suspecting emergency building work, Ms Hall was shocked to learn in recent weeks that asbestos was confirmed under the school stage. She successfully sued Leeds City Council, which was found responsible for the school being "riddled with asbestos." She received an undisclosed settlement. The school itself was demolished and rebuilt in 2009.
Her case is not isolated. High Court documents reveal a widow is suing Kirklees Council for £250,000 after her 61-year-old husband died from mesothelioma. He was exposed to asbestos lagging pipes under a theatre stage at Colne Valley High School in the 1970s. In a further tragedy, mother-of-three Lisa Doughty, 47, died from the same disease after asbestos dust fell from a sprayed ceiling in her Hackney school music room in the early 1980s.
Despite asbestos being banned in new buildings in 1999, an estimated 21,500 schools in Britain still contain the material. Government policy is to manage it in place unless damaged. However, last year the Mail launched a campaign to strip asbestos from all schools, hospitals, and public buildings.
A Call for Action and Ongoing Risk
"It absolutely should be removed from schools. I'm worried about my grandchildren," Ms Hall stated emphatically. Leeds City Council said 70 of its 97 schools have identified asbestos, which is inspected annually by qualified professionals.
The scale of the problem is vast. There are around 5,000 asbestos-related deaths in Britain each year, with 2,200 specifically from mesothelioma. Symptoms can take 20 to 60 years to appear. A report by the Joint Union Asbestos Committee last year predicted that 25,200 people exposed to asbestos in schools before the mid-1990s will die from mesothelioma.
The Department for Education stated it follows Health and Safety Executive advice, which recommends managing asbestos in place if it is in good condition. For Rose Hall and countless others, that policy has come decades too late.
