A WIDOW who was paid £180,000 in compensation after asbestos killed her husband has urged other North-East families to fight on.

Jill Edwards, of Masham, North Yorkshire, said she hoped the out-of-court settlement agreed on Wednesday would encourage the dependents of other asbestos victims.

Her solicitor, Irwin Mitchell, said this was one of the first and biggest compensation cases to be resolved.

Hundreds of North-East families are also pursuing compensation claims through the courts.

Peter Edwards was 76 when he died in May 2000 of mesothelioma, caused by inhaling asbestos fibres.

He had spent most of his life working in the shipyards of Tyneside and Teesside, rising from apprentice fitter to director of Smith's Dock (now part of British Shipbuilders).

A single fibre is enough to cause mesothelioma, which can flare up many decades after exposure. It had been known since the 1930s that asbestos fibres could damage the lungs, but little was done to protect shipyard workers.

Last week Smith's Dock admitted liability in this matter, following a House of Lords ruling in June.