HAMPSHIRE widow Shirley Ross has spoken of her battle to win compensation from the Ministry of Defence after her husband died of cancer brought on by exposure to asbestos.

Ronald Ross died in March last year after being exposed to the deadly dust when he worked for the MoD at Portsmouth Dockyards.

Now his widow Shirley is claiming £190,000 compensation through her husband's union for what they claim was negligence on the MoD's part in not protecting their workers from asbestos.

Mrs Ross, 65, of Marine Parade East, Lee-on-the-Solent said: "It all happened so quickly with my husband. Six months after he was diagnosed he died. There is no doubt really what caused it.

"It is all being done through the unions. I don't know too much about it but it has been hard for all of us to cope with. He wasn't old and was very fit - he played football until he was 50."

Mr Ross joined the MoD in 1952 as an apprentice and later became a project and planning officer in the civil service until he left in 1991.

He was diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma, a cancer affecting the membrane surrounding the chest, and died aged 66.