THE inside of the ship was lined with a thin sprinkling of white powder most days, as if it was Christmas all year round.

Robert Brown was an 18-year-old apprentice welder on Redheads, the North Shields shipyard, and to him, it was like working in some wondrous snowstorm, the kind he kept on his mantelpiece.

Little was he to know that the gentle white snowflakes that fell on his face and skin every day were deadly, or the asbestos he handled with his bare hands was going to leave him debilitated. "It looked like there was snow falling around us. We'd constantly be in a white cloud and I was breathing it all in," says Robert, 53.

The damage that delicate white dust did him went unrecognised for years. He got married and had three lovely children who grew up and left the nest. After decades of hard graft, he finally retired and began to plan a happy future for himself and wife Irene.

And that's when it hit him. He went to the doctor because he was feeling out of sorts and he was told he had asbestos-related cancer, mesothelioma.

It is only then, a few months ago, he realised the full horror of those persistent snowflakes. The asbestos he handled with bare hands, to lag the ship's pipes, had left him dangerously ill and unable to climb his South Tyneside house stairs without feeling wiped out. He struggles for breath most of the time. He wheezes on the phone and spends most of the day in his armchair.

"I just sit and watch TV. That's all there is these days. I'm hoping for a day when I can walk down my street and fetch my own paper one of these days," says Robert.The retired welder, who moved on to work at Smith's Dock on Teesside for years, feels an intense anger at not being given any protection from the lethal substance which is killing a person every day in the region.

"We wore no masks and no gloves on those ships. You'd never get that now," he says.

Robert is having regular chemotherapy sessions at Newcastle General Hospital and is determined to remain positive about his condition, despite the exhausting treatment. "The chemotherapy really exhausts me but I have such difficulty breathing, I can't sleep and can't sit still. I pace up and down all night. I can't believe I've worked hard all those years as a welder for all those people I worked for and it's left me so ill in retirement. But you've got to remain hopeful. That's what I'm doing."

Compared to miners, many of whom have been compensated, he feels like a 'forgotten soul' and is seeking compensation, through Newcastle's Thompsons Solictors, from the insurance companies which insured the companies he worked for.

While Robert is holding on, Peter Edwards lost his battle with the same asbestos-related disease in May last year. After the former chairman of Smith's Dock on Teesside was diagnosed with the fatal disease, he spoke out about the dangers of asbestos. His wife Jill has continued his campaigning and she is continuing Peter's battle for compensation through Sheffield solicitors Irwin Mitchell. "He sought compensation because he wanted to see me comfortable after he was gone. He had always provided for me," says mother-of-three Jill.

Peter had worked as an apprentice on Smith's Dock despite having family links with the founders of the firm. He worked his way from the bottom to become one of the managing directors, but it was while he was in training he handled asbestos on a regular basis.

Despite the devastating news that he had cancer at the age of 75, he did not flinch. When the doctors at the Friarage Hospital, Northallerton, North Yorkshire told the married couple of the terminal condition, in July 1999, he came over to hold his wife's hand and said "my poor darling, I'm so sorry for you", when he realised he'd be leaving her behind.

"When he found out he had mesothelioma, he was worried more for all those other 150 or so apprentices he'd worked with in the bowels of the ship than for himself," says Jill, 65, from Masham, North Yorkshire.

"There were hard moments like when his tumour erupted but, for the most part, he wasn't in a lot of pain. He had fantastic medical help and morphine whenever he needed it. He was only very breathless towards the very end."

In some ways, Jill feels lucky she was able to share 41-years of married life with Peter - not everyone with the fatal illness has the privilege of such a long life.

* Jill Edwards is urging any suffering families or those seeking compensation to contact her if they need help or practical advice. Telephone (01765) 689978.