The family of a former miner have been awarded £85,000 in compensation after he died of a work-related lung disease.

Roy Gamble died of lung cancer at the age of 73 in 2005, 21 years after ending his career in Yorkshire’s coalfields

Doctors said he had developed cancer as a result of silicosis, which prompted him to pursue a compensation claim against his former employer British Coal in 2003, reports the Yorkshire Evening Post.

Mr Gamble asked his daughter Linda to continue the claim after he died and her efforts to secure a settlement have now proved successful.

It was finally accepted that exposure to silica dust in the pits was the root cause of the condition which led to Mr Gamble’s death, resulting in the compensation payout.

News of the settlement comes just days after the widow of an engineering worker from Stalybridge who died from mesothelioma following exposure to asbestos at work received a £60,000 compensation payment.

The Manchester Evening News reported that the case against Frederick Hughes’s former employer Vernon & Roberts was settled four years ago, but that his widow had to take action against the former directors of the company to obtain the money, as both the engineering business and its insurer had gone out of business.