THE family of a North-East CJD victim have spoken of their heartbreak as Government experts warned that deaths from the disease are likely to rise.

Fanatical Newcastle United supporter Ian Thompson, 25, who worked as a postman, died less than a year after being diagnosed as suffering from new variant CJD.

His parents, Norma and Tom, chose to speak publicly, nine months after Ian's death, as scientists warned that deaths from the human form of mad cow disease are likely to increase by up to 30 per cent over coming years.

Mrs Thompson, of Gosforth, Newcastle, said: "It is time the public was told of the full horrors of new variant CJD and that it is taken seriously. None of us are safe."

Consultant neurologist Dr David Bates diagnosed the illness at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary in August, 1998, but the origin of the infection remains a mystery.

Mrs Thompson said: "Ian never ate school meals, but we did eat meat at home, and he ate beefburgers when he was out with his friends.

"We have no idea where it came from or how it happened. All we know is that our son is dead and he shouldn't be."

The likely scale the disease may reach was the subject of a warning yesterday from the head of a Government panel of experts on the disease.

Between two and four more people will probably die from new variant CJD in addition to the 10 to 15 deaths currently experienced each year, said Professor Peter Smith.

Prof Smith, acting head of the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee, said this was borne out by a ''statistically significant'' increase in cases.

The disease could claim thousands of lives, but he believed it was now less likely that it would kill tens of thousands.

New variant CJD destroys the brains of its victims and is believed to have been spread by beef from cattle infected with mad cow disease, or BSE.

It may have been spread, it emerged earlier this week, through the use of mechanically recovered meat in school meals during the 1980s.