A woman who suffered a double tragedy due to deadly asbestos is throwing her weight behind the Mirror's campaign.

Avril Gooding-Grant, 51, watched as electrician husband Chris suffered an agonising death from mesothelioma at the age of 58 in 2001. She later fell for mechanic Les Alford but just three years later he was also had the incurable cancer.

They got engaged but Les deteriorated so quickly he couldn't go through with the wedding. He died in 2006 aged 60. Like Chris and many other sufferers, he had survived just nine months after being diagnosed.

Both men had been exposed to asbestos at work years before mesothelioma. In some cases it can take up to 50 years before the disease takes hold. Grieving Avril, who has clinical depression, today backed the Mirror's Asbestos Timebomb campaign.

She is supporting our demand for a £10 million research centre to improve treatments, ease suffering and find a cure for the disease which kills someone every five hours in the UK. Over 2,000 people a year will be lost to mesothelioma for the next 20 years, twice the number who will die of cervical cancer which Jade Goody is suffering from.

Mum-of-two Avril, of Hoo in Kent, said: "I watched as two men I loved died before my eyes from mesothelioma. "Enough is enough. We need to raise awareness so people know what mesothelioma is, and we need more Government funding to find better ways to treat and hopefully prevent this disease.

"I back this campaign 100 per cent and urge others to do the same. Chris and Les may not be here anymore but we should do everything we can to spare others their pain." Sign the Downing Street petition in support of our campaign at
www.asbestos-timebomb.com