BRAVE relatives of a dad who died from the human form of mad cow disease want to help stop others contracting the killer.

Graham Wood, 39, lost his long fight for life in October, after developing the brain-wasting illness CJD.

The Kearsley father-of-two was thought to have contracted Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease after eating infected meat.

He spent his final days in Hope Hospital, Salford, with his family, including wife Maria, who is a nurse at the Royal Bolton Hospital, by his side.

Now his heartbroken family have helped a legal team acting on behalf of a special support group to prepare notes on his illness.

Safe

The notes may be included as documentary evidence in the ongoing London-based BSE inquiry, due to begin its second phase in February.

And Graham's mum, Rhona Wood, says the family hopes their involvement will eventually mean other people are safe from the terrifying disease.

Mrs Wood, of Bromley Cross, said: "We wouldn't like anyone else to suffer as Graham suffered.

"To see a fit young bloke deteriorate as he did was so harrowing for everyone.

"We're still just trying to get over it. It's been a terrible time and we're just trying to pick ourselves up.

"We are in touch with the CJD support group and a solicitor has taken our account of Graham's illness from start to finish for the BSE inquiry.

"It was awful for us to have to go through his illness in such detail but it might help prevent others suffering as he did."

Relatives of the former engineer who worked at British Aerospace's Lostock plant were invited to the inquiry's first phase.

But family members were too upset over Graham's recent death to travel to London.

Mrs Wood added: "We have submitted our version of events to try to get to the cause of it all.

"We still don't know who was to blame in the first place and this is what we want to get to the bottom of.

"If there was an epidemic of this in the future we want to know how it would be dealt with."

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