Former nurse died from exposure to asbestos

Gillian Burden, 70, was most likely to have been exposed while working at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Oxfordshire coroner Darren Salter heard the Southmoor resident lived and worked at Oxford’s Churchill Hospital from 1960 to 1967.

After working in Vancouver in Canada, she worked at the Birmingham Hospital from September 1970.

The cause of death was recorded as metastatic malignant epithelioid mesothelioma.

Statements from doctors said Mrs Burden, of Lime Grove, Southmoor, reported increasing breathlessness from 2010.

She died at Sobell House Hospice, Oxford on October 19.

Mr Salter said yesterday: “The evidence about the facts about when, where the asbestos was and when the exposure took place is a little vague and sketchy.

“But it is known that mesothelioma predominately, very much predominately, is caused through asbestos exposure.”

The exposure was “likely” to have occurred when she was a nurse, he said.

He added: “That may have been in Oxford, but more likely Birmingham.”