A NORTH-EAST asbestos cancer victim, who has only months to live, is leading the battle to reinstate compensation for his disease.

Alan Clark, of Ormesby Road, Hartlepool, is calling on the Government to give people diagnosed with pleural plaques, a scarring on the lungs caused by asbestos, the money they deserve for their suffering.

The 59-year-old was one of the last people to receive compensation before it was withdrawn by the House of Lords in 2007.

Mr Clark has spent the majority of his working life as a thermal insulation engineer and was exposed to asbestos.

He was diagnosed with pleural plaques in 2000.

Last month, he was told he had developed the fatal asbestos cancer mesothelioma and has about six months to live.

Mr Clark, who has been to London to lobby MPs about the illness, took a provisional compensation settlement of £1,500 for pleural plaques, but refused to take a full settlement so that he could claim for mesothelioma if it developed.

He said: “When I was diagnosed with pleural plaques I panicked. I felt like my death certificate had been signed and I knew it would only be a matter of time before I was told I had mesothelioma. I’ve worried about it ever since.

“I am living proof that pleural plaques can lead to mesothelioma and I want the Government to take what has happened to me into consideration.

“A lot of people’s causes of death get wrongly dismissed as stomach cancer and heart attacks. This is wrong, as their families then can’t claim.”

Mr Clark, who has worked at several industrial sites on Teesside during his career, is married to Stella, 55. The couple have three children, a grandchild and a step-grandchild.

He was forced to give up work in January, as he now has very little strength and cannot walk far.

He added: “It is disgusting to think the law currently doesn’t accept that pleural plaques are a real injury. Here I am dying of this terrible disease only nine years after being told I had pleural plaques.

“I’m not the only one with pleural plaques who will get mesothelioma. It is as if the Government is ignoring that people like me exist.

“This is not about me any more, as it is too late for me.

But fighting to get compensation for other people is what is keeping me going.”

Ian McFall, head of asbestos policy at Thompsons Solicitors, added: “The worst outcome can and does happen to people with pleural plaques, as this case so tragically shows. The insurance industry would prefer to dismiss that risk in order to avoid paying compensation for pleural plaques.”