Appeal for witnesses for cancer victim, as asbestos dangers feared to include former insurance workers

An appeal by the family of an Ipswich insurance company worker who died from an asbestos-related illness may show that other former insurance workers could also be affected by the deadly material.

Nigel Olley died of mesothelioma, which it is believed he contracted whilst working in old offices in the City of London more than 30 years ago. He spent all his life working in the insurance industry, the first part of it in London. The City and the surrounding area was the home of the British insurance industry and most companies had their headquarters there. They were large and prestigious offices, but often very old. Mr Olley worked all his life for what began in 1962 as the Motor Union Insurance Company, but became Royal Exchange Insurance, then the Guardian Royal Exchange Group. In 1994 the group moved its headquarters from London to Ipswich, and Mr Olley was one of those who moved with his job. Finally the group was taken over by AXA, still based in Ipswich.

Mr Olley was made redundant in 1999. He was diagnosed in 2014 with mesothelioma, an asbestos-related cancer, and died in February 2017. He was 71. Mr Olley spent the first part of his career working in offices in St James Street and the Strand, in London, often in the basement among the pipework, where the files were kept. It is in the Strand offices that Mr Olley believed he came into contact with asbestos. At some time during the late 70s or early 80s the offices underwent major renovation. This was during a period before the dangers of asbestos were realised. During this time, Mr Olley remembers, builders were working alongside the office workers, cutting and replacing pipes and ducts. The pipes would have been lagged with asbestos, and Mr Olley recalls coming into work in the morning and having to wipe a thin film of dust off his desk before he could begin his day.

Mr Olley’s family are pursuing a claim against his former employers for being responsible for the conditions which caused his death. Though the claim is against a company taken over many years ago by AXA, there is no suggestion that AXA are in any way implicated in working conditions of this nature. But the defendant’s lawyers will need evidence before meeting the Olley family’s claim. So through their lawyers, Ashtons Legal, his family are appealing to former colleagues of his, and other insurance workers who know of those conditions, to come forward.

The family’s solicitor is Phoebe Osborne, an asbestos specialist with Ashtons Legal. “Mesothelioma is an extremely aggressive and incurable cancer, which is caused by exposure to asbestos dust fibres,” she explains. “It affects more than 2500 people in this country each year. It often occurs 30 years or more after contact, which is why it can be difficult finding witnesses who knew of the conditions at the time. So we are appealing to anybody who worked with Mr Olley in St James Street or the Strand, or knew of the conditions there, to come forward with any information they have.”

If anyone has knowledge of or shared similar working conditions to those described by Mr Olley, his family would be grateful if they could get in touch. Phoebe Osborne can be contacted on 01223 431159.