RAILWAY worker families killed by cancer from asbestos will be entitled to a government payout for the first time.

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions John Hutton said yesterday that more people affected by mesothelioma will be able to claim a lump sum from the government within six weeks.

Payments will go to people exposed to asbestos from a relative, people exposed from living near a factory and those who can't trace where they were exposed to the powder.

South Swindon MP Anne Snelgrove said she hoped the future would be brighter for sufferers of the cancer, also known as the Swindon Disease.

She said: "Currently people can die before they get compensation, or they could find they aren't eligible because they contracted the disease from living near a works or being exposed to a relative who worked there, rather than working at the factory themselves. That is an awful injustice."

Between 1981 and 2000, 95 people in Swindon died from mesothelioma, more than twice the national average.

Because the disease takes years to build up in the lungs the number of cases may not yet have peaked.

Sylvia Parker died three years ago from the disease after being exposed to asbestos powder while washing her husband's clothes.

David Parker, 65, of Ermin Street, Blunsdon, said there were no facilities to clean clothes at the British Rail boiler room where he worked and is now fighting a landmark case against his former employer.

Mr Parker, who has not yet been tested for the illness, said: "I think it's about time people who haven't been able to claim anything got a payout."

"Most of the people who have died from it were the husbands, leaving their wives in hardship, but they can get compensation."

Brigitte Chandler, from Charles, Lucas and Marshall in Old Town said: "More and more ladies are coming forward because they were exposed and there have been some cases of children hugging their fathers too.

"Although they knew about the danger to the husbands working in these places they didn't know about the danger to the wives."

The payments are expected to start early next year and would not stop people making civil claims for compensation.