A DOCTOR has won £175,000 damages from the Department of Health after his wife died from exposure to asbestos dust.

Nurse Rebecca Little, 53, of Catterick, North Yorkshire, died in February 2002 from mesothelioma, the asbestos-related cancer.

Since then, her husband, Dr Julian Little, has fought to prove her illness was caused by the dust.

She said that it had crumbled from insulation covering pipes on the wards of the former Charing Cross Hospital, in London, where she trained from 1968 to 1970.

The Department of Health admitted liability for breach of duty of care and agreed compensation of £175,000, solicitors Irwin Mitchell said.

Mrs Little met her husband at the hospital, which has since been decommissioned.

After Dr Little qualified as an anaesthetist, the couple lived in Australia and Canada with their four children before moving to England in 1981.

Dr Little joined the Army in the mid-1980s and, in 1997, the couple were posted to Catterick Garrison, where Mrs Little was a health visitor at a health centre in Richmond.

Despite extensive treatment for mesothelioma, Mrs Little died only days before her 54th birthday.

Dr Little said: "Whilst I am satisfied with the result and, in particular, the Department of Health's admission of liability, nothing can make up for the pain and suffering which Becky went through."

He said his wife's motive in her battle had been to highlight the dangers of asbestos in old hospitals.

He said: ''She was desperate that some action should be taken to tackle the problem so that other people would not suffer as she had."