WHEN he worked in the shipyards, Ron Gillies can remember the air being filled with asbestos particles.

"It used to look like snowflakes hanging in the air, especially when they were lagging the engine pipes," said Mr Gillies, who is awaiting compensation after being diagnosed with pleural plaques.

It is more than half a century since the 76-year-old father-of-three, from Gateshead, worked in the shipyards at Wallsend, North Tyneside.

Yet the four or five years he spent at the Swan Hunter and Wallsend Slipway in the 1940s have left him with permanently damaged lungs. He only found out about his condition when he was x-rayed at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Gateshead, for another health problem.

"They found that I had asbestos fibres in the lung, which I didn't know about," said Mr Gillies, who also has two grandchildren.

"Psychologically, it is a big blow when you find out. I've always been pretty fit, but over the last few years I have noticed that when I walk a bit faster, I do get out of breath, have chest pains and feel tight."

He said the court ruling was pretty good news for anyone claiming for pleural plaques.