Dust That Waited Decades: Mesothelioma Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe mesothelioma, the rare cancer of the body's linings tied to asbestos breathed in long ago. Writers trace it to a pipe lagger's first twenty working years, a Navy engine room, brake linings in an auto shop, an asbestos mine near Prieska, a shipbreaking beach in Gujarat, a weaving shed in Belfast, a school ceiling, a run-down house renovated by a software tester, eight months at the pile in Queens, and overalls washed at home. Some have the pleural form, others peritoneal, and one woman has it around her heart. A smoker's cough, a bloated stomach blamed on pasta, a hernia repair and two ribs broken in a fall from a ladder led to scans. They write from Gdansk and Piedmont to Goias and Hobart. The book covers biopsies and second opinions, eleven-hour and eight-hour operations, chemotherapy and maintenance treatment, draining fluid at the kitchen table, pain relief, saying no to chemotherapy at seventy-eight, compensation paperwork, telling children and a Tuesday support group. Some writers are stable after six or twelve years and one was told her tumour could no longer be found, while others had a short road with the aggressive kind, and several accounts come from daughters, sons and widows writing after a death.

Who it's for

For anyone facing mesothelioma or living with asbestos exposure in their past, and for the spouses, children and carers who wash the overalls, keep the paperwork and sit at the bedside.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 233 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.