I’m convinced talc contained in my makeup gave me cancer

Some of my earliest and happiest memories are from when I was four, playing with my mum’s cosmetics on her chest of drawers. She had the face powder everyone used to plaster over themselves, and a big box of eyeshadows and lipsticks. While she was doing her makeup, my brother and I used to fight with the powder puffs, covering the carpet in talcum powder. She’d laugh at the sheer joy of it. We had so much fun.

So when, in 2016, I was diagnosed with mesothelioma – an incurable cancer which many people have linked to asbestos in those cosmetics – those memories became more precious, but also hard to bear. I was told most people with the disease die within a year, and suddenly I felt my life had been taken from me.

When I had to tell my children, Holly, then aged 10, and Luke, four, they were devastated. My husband, Duncan, was brave, but the future he thought he had was now very different.

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Tests in the US found asbestos fibres in a tumour in my peritoneum – the lining of the abdomen – and research by my lawyer, Harminder Bains of Leigh Day, established that my only possible exposure was through talc found in cosmetics. Talc is a mined mineral found in similar locations to asbestos, and sometimes they’re cross-contaminated.

My American lawyers found evidence that cosmetics companies had known about this since the 1960s, but had done everything they could to withhold it from customers and regulators. Bearing in mind that includes baby powders, too, I found this abominable.

I wasn’t prepared to let it go, and in spite of being very ill, I took on some of the biggest cosmetics companies and underwent some brutal questioning during the deposition process. Eventually, faced with the evidence, three of them reached a “resolution” with me in 2023, just before we were due in court. Legally, I can’t discuss the settlement terms, but it was reported in the media and was costly for them.

So I was delighted to hear that a class action has now been launched against Johnson & Johnson (J&J), makers of the world’s most popular baby powder, with 3,000 UK claimants. I hope they get the justice they and their families deserve. The company has already settled tens of thousands of cases in the US.

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As in my case, evidence has emerged that J&J executives knew about the asbestos risk, but tried to cover it up. This made me feel angry again, but also happy that my case, the first of its kind launched in the US by a UK citizen, emboldened others to take up the cause, and will probably make it easier for them.

It is important that the publicity surrounding this case doesn’t just focus on J&J because, as my case seems to show, other cosmetics companies may be culpable.

My family and I have had to pay a high price for what they did to me. I had a major operation in 2017 that involved a hysterectomy and the removal of my spleen, appendix and gall bladder. I have undergone chemotherapy and immunotherapy that caused a heart attack, and several times it looked as if I wouldn’t make it.

It has been tough on Holly and Luke, but I’m proud of them and they’re doing well. So is Duncan. The doctors can’t believe I’m still here, but I think my determination to raise awareness of this issue has kept me going.

I’ve written letters for my children for after I’m gone, and I used to leave little notes for them when we put the Christmas decorations away each year in case I wasn’t there the next. I don’t do that any more. Instead, I think positively, and that makes me stronger. My sheer bloody-mindedness will get me through.