Clapper, Patti, Schweizer and Mason

There is a growing trend of secondary asbestos exposure with more and more people contracting asbestos related diseases from fibers brought from the workplace into the home on clothing worn by family members who worked with the dangerous material. Asbestos diseases, such as mesothelioma, can lay dormant for 20 to 40 years before any symptoms appear and those diagnosed usually die within a year. 

 

But for one Plymouth woman, the prognosis looks much brighter. Debbie Brewer was diagnosed with mesothelioma in November 2006 and told she had less than a year to live.   Mesothelioma is a form of cancer in the lining of the lung in which the only established causal factor is exposure to asbestos. Debbie had been exposed to asbestos brought home on her father Philip Northmore’s clothing and hair. Mr. Northmore was a lagger at Devonport Dockyard in the 1960’s and would often scrape asbestos from pipes as part of his job duties. When Debbie was a young child, she remembered her father returning home after finishing a shift and hugging her in his work clothes, which were covered with dust.

 

Just a few months after her father’s death from an asbestos-related lung cancer in August 2006, Debbie was diagnosed with mesothelioma. After being awarded a six figure compensation by the Ministry of Defense, Debbie declined chemotherapy and instead chose to try an experimental treatment carried out by Professor Thomas Vogl at the University Clinic in Frankfurt.    Her first transpulmonary chemoembolisation (TCBE)  session began in May, with a second in June. Her sixth and final session was December 12, when her doctors informed her that her tumor had shrunk 53 percent, was in partial remission, and should not come back. 

 

TCBE shows promise to be a well-tolerated treatment option for certain cancers that are unable to be removed by surgery.  Each of Debbie’s sessions cost £3,500, which she paid for with some of her award from the Ministry. From the beginning, Debbie was vocal about her diagnosis, choice of treatment, and desire to spread any information that might help others. She has been featured in interviews and videos, and has started her own website, http://www.mesothelioma-and-me.com/.