A farmer who created a gorgeous "infinity pool" on his farm on Eryri National Park (previously known as Snowdonia) has sadly died. Wyn Mostyn Lloyd Jones passed away from cancer after inhaling asbestos whilst training at agricultural college years ago, an inquest in Caernarfon heard today.
As reported by our sister site NorthWalesLive, Mr Jones, originally from Llanrwst in Conwy, left school at 17 and enrolled at Coleg Llysfasi to train in farming, spending his free time working on the family farm at Nant Peris.
As a teenager, he was said to have unfortunately breathed in "clouds" of dust which led to his health deteriorating years later. He died in a hospice in Holyhead on October 29, 2022. At the inquest into his death on Wednesday, February 15, assistant coroner for northwest Wales, Sarah Riley, gave a narrative conclusion that the probable cause of death was mesothelioma. You can get more local news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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During the inquest, a statement was read out that Mr Jones had prepared shortly before his death. The inquest heard that Mr Jones regularly repaired and maintained tractors during the course of his college course which had exposed him to asbestos and affected his health.
Mr Jones wrote that his work as a college student would involve replacing brake linings and removing "a brake shoe from a drum" and blowing the dust away, before fitting a new shoe to the brake and attaching it to the wheel. In his statement, Mr Jones said there were no masks to wear and he couldn't help but breathe in the particles. He said the practice would happen once or twice a week during his first year of college.
The inquest also heard that Mr Jones often worked on his father's dairy and sheep farm in the mountains. There, an old building which might have contained asbestos collapsed in the 1960s - but Mr Jones said in his statement that he was never exposed to asbestos while working as a farmer.
Discussing Mr Jones' health, the inquest heard he had experienced a shortness of breath and weight loss from around 2001. Twenty years later, in 2021, his health declined and he experienced further breathlessness and fatigue.
"The other farmers laughed at my struggling to get up. That's when I knew that something was wrong," Mr Jones' statement revealed.
In November, 2021, Mr Jones had medical tests and was diagnosed with mesothelioma. He received chemotherapy treatment but was having palliative care in Ysbyty Glan Clwyd by January, 2022. By the October, he had moved into St David's Hospice in Holyhead to be given palliative care for malignant mesothelioma. He died there on October 29.
The assistant coroner found he died from mesothelioma which was determined from biopsies during his care. Giving a narrative conclusion, she said: "Mr Jones was exposed to asbestos whilst at college as part of his farming studies.
"Having considered the evidence that Mr Jones himself had provided and the details of his exposure to asbestos dust...I find it more likely than not that Mr Jones' mesothelioma was caused by asbestos exposure. The exposure to that asbestos has probably caused his mesothelioma."
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