A widow has died of the same disease she believed killed her husband and father after spending years washing their overalls, which she said were coated in asbestos.

Ann Siddons, 72, of Rivers Walk, Lenham, was diagnosed with mesothelioma, the cancer usually linked to asbestos exposure, in August 2015.

Before she died she launched an appeal to find other people who worked at Marley Floor Tile factory in the village during the 1960s and 1970s where her husband Henry, known as Harry, and father, Walter Ward, were employed.

She and her lawyer were hoping to piece together information about the working conditions in the factory but Mrs Siddons lost her battle with cancer at Maidstone Hospital on January 10.

An inquest into her death was opened and adjourned at Archbishop’s Palace, Maidstone, and confirmed the housewife had died from mesothelioma.

Last year she told our sister paper the Kent Messenger her husband died of pneumonia in 2009 aged 69, having been forced to retire due to ill health 14 years earlier, and her father died of cancer aged 67 in 1981.

Mrs Siddons, who underwent surgery to drain her lungs and lost more than a stone in weight, said: “They used to set off for work together and when they came home again in the evening, they were caked in a fine grey dust.

"My father used to take off his overalls and leave them on his chair overnight.

"In the morning he’d put them back on and go to work.

“I remember shaking them out of the back door to get the dust off before washing them and turning out the pockets full of the stuff.

"I must have done that every week for about eight years until Henry stopped working there.”

The inquest will resume in April.

Support and advice for people suffering from mesothelioma is offered on the Mesothelioma and Asbestos Awareness Centre website.