A WOMAN who worked in a wallpaper factory almost 50 years ago died of mesothelioma through contact with asbestos, an inquest heard.

Dorothy Dorsett, 69, of Hildreth Road, Prestwood, had been fit and healthy but consultant pathologist Dr David Bailey told the High Wycombe inquest on Tuesday that Mrs Dorsett developed a tumour between her lung and chest wall.

He said: "The right side of the chest cavity was virtually obliterated by the tumour."

He told the inquest it takes between 20 and 50 years for the disease to develop after exposure to asbestos.

When trying to establish the source of the disease assistant deputy coroner Tom Grace asked her son Mark Dorsett where his mother had worked.

Mrs Dorsett spent nine months working in a wallpaper factory in Gosport around 1956.

Mr Grace said it could only have been there that Mrs Dorsett came into contact with asbestos.

Pathologist Dr Bailey said: "There is a pocket of mesothelioma in Gosport."

Mr Dorsett told the inquest his mother had been diagnosed with the disease on June 19, her wedding anniversary, and she died on December 19.

Mr Grace said: "There is no doubt in my mind that the cause of death was as a result of contact with asbestos causing mesothelioma." He recorded a verdict of death due to industrial injury.