THE grieving partner of a kind-hearted postman who died of a deadly asbestos cancer will join other victims in the fight for more research.

Terence McCarthy had been fit and healthy all of his life but when he fill ill with a suspected chest infection, doctors gave him a devastating diagnosis.

He was told he had the cancer mesothelioma, caused by exposure to asbestos 40 years ago.

Mr McCarthy died in March this year, aged 66, in Bolton Hospice, after an agonising battle with the disease.

Now his partner of 15 years, Margaret Poole, is calling for the insurance industry to urgently fund more medical research.

Ms Poole and other members of the Greater Manchester Asbestos Victims Support Group will lobby MPs in Manchester later this month.

Ms Poole, aged 64 from Limbridge Drive in Blackrod, said more funding was desperately needed to find a cure.

She said: “This cancer is a terminal diagnosis. Nothing can be done apart from a course of chemotherapy to buy victims a little more time.

“There is no light at the end of tunnel for people like Terry. He was doubled up with pain and it was terrible to watch him suffer like that.

“It makes me very angry because Terry was a good, loving man. The manufacturers knew for years about the effects of asbestos yet they did nothing.

“This is why the insurers and the Government must commit to funding more research.”

Symptoms of mesothelioma develop, on average, about 32 years after exposure to asbestos fibres, with sufferers living an average of eight months after diagnosis.

However, mesothelioma research is still underfunded.

The Mesothelioma Bill was passed in March to allow sufferers and their family to apply for payouts from a pot of £380 million funded by the insurance industry — but none of that money will go directly to research.

Kate Green, shadow minister for disabled people, is backing the victim’s campaign.

The lobby will be held from 11.45am in Barbirolli Square in Manchester on September 22.

For more information, go to: asbestos-victims-support.org.