A TERMINALLY ill pensioner has begun High Court proceedings after claiming he caught a rare killer disease during a lifetime of working with asbestos.Brian Staley , 67, from Bury St Edmunds, has now launched a legal battle for compensation of up to £150,000 after he contracted an asbestos-related cancer and was told he had just six months to live.

A TERMINALLY ill pensioner has begun High Court proceedings after claiming he caught a rare killer disease during a lifetime of working with asbestos.

Brian Staley , 67, from Bury St Edmunds, has now launched a legal battle for compensation of up to £150,000 after he contracted an asbestos-related cancer and was told he had just six months to live.

In a writ issued to the High Court, Mr Staley, who suffers from the terminal disease malignant mesothelioma , has claimed his condition was caused by negligence on the part of the Central Electric Generating Board, now known as Powergen.

It is claimed he was exposed to asbestos while working in a power station in Nottingham and then again when he worked as an assistant engineer at the Cliff Quay power station in Ipswich.

Mr Staley, who first suffered symptoms last year and whose condition is expected to deteriorate until his death, was unavailable for comment last night .

But the writ accused his former employers of negligence, claiming they exposed him to a major risk of fatal injury without giving him protection or warning, and also failed to provide him with a safe system or place of work.

Mr Staley, who lives in Risbygate Street, worked for the generating board between 1952 and 1958 and then again between 1961 and 1970 at the Staythorpe power station in Newark, Nottingham.

It is claimed he breathed in deadly dusts and fibres while removing and putting up asbestos in boiler rooms and turbine halls.

After his national service, he returned to work at the power station where he was also exposed to asbestos through working close to laggers, the writ claimed.

Mr Staley was also involved in maintenance work during the 1960s where asbestos lagging was disturbed and removed, causing large amounts of dust to be released into the air.

He later worked at the Cliff Quay power station, Ipswich, where he was again exposed to asbestos.

Malignant mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer, is a disease in which cancer cells are found in the sac lining the chest or abdomen. Most people with the condition have worked on jobs where they breathed asbestos.

A spokesman for Powergen said they could not comment on the case as legal proceedings had begun.