A PENSIONER suffered a heart attack and collapsed, dying, as he spoke to a neighbour and her child.

The 11-year-old ran to a nearby doctor's surgery to get help as his mother, Mrs Leigh Suggett, tried to catch 80-year-old Tony Rambow as he collapsed at his front door in Saltburn's Bristol Avenue.

An inquest in Middlesbrough heard that the retired industrial chemist had been exposed to asbestos while working on the construction of an ICI Phthalic Anhydrite plant at Billingham between 1954 and 1960.

Elizabeth Proctor, his daughter, told Deputy Teesside Coroner Gordon Hetherington: "It was a hands on job and there was a lot of problems with it (plant). They had to keep dismantling apparatus, which involved removing asbestos lagging.

"Although I think he was the plant manager, he did help on a daily basis.''

She said her father lived with a worry that his experience with asbestos would lead to health complications and in fact was diagnosed by his GP as suffering from a medical condition associated with exposure to asbestos.

But a post mortem examination found while Mr Rambow's fibre count was no greater than levels found in the general population his heart was more than twice the size it should be and he had a serious progressive heart condition with "considerable narrowing of the main arteries.'' Mr Hetherington ruled that Mr Rambow died of natural causes.