A CHERITON woman died from a cancer linked to asbestos exposure, but it is not clear when she would have come into contact with the fibre, an inquest heard.

Vivian Pain, of Alresford Road, died at her home on September 21, aged 78, of mesothelioma.

Mrs Pain was diagnosed with mesothelioma after she went to her GP surgery in 2020, suffering a persistent cough. She was sent for a biopsy and the cancer was detected, but she declined chemotherapy.

An inquest into her death at Winchester Coroner’s Court was told that she “couldn’t identify a specific exposure” to asbestos.

Mrs Pain had worked in a number of public buildings, specifically in adult education, one of which was a primary school in Wales, which in 2019, according to a Freedom of Information request by the BBC, still had asbestos present.

The hearing was also told that Mrs Pain and her husband David had bought a derelict house in Wales which had a garage with an asbestos roof, but the couple had it removed. It was then used by Mrs Pain as a walled garden.

Area coroner Rosamund Rhodes-Kemp concluded that Mrs Pain died of an industrial disease.