JENNI MURRAY: My godsons both made a terrifying discovery in their new homes. And this killer may be lurking in yours too

I was, unsurprisingly, delighted when the two sons of close family friends, now in their late 30s and early 40s, recently managed to buy themselves a house each. No easy feat in this age of sky-high prices.

I’m godmother to the pair of them – no religion, but always good for a fiver – and I’ve loved them since they were babies.

I did not expect to be terrified at the prospect of what they called their ‘doer-uppers’ presenting a serious risk to their health. And yet, for both of them, their DIY enthusiasm has been dampened by the discovery of that deadly substance – asbestos.

Thank goodness that in both cases it was found by builders, hired to do a couple of small jobs, who advised the employment of specialist asbestos companies to do a full check for its presence throughout.

Richard and his wife Helen have a two-year-old daughter. Their house is a large, detached Edwardian edifice. They’d all been unwittingly living with asbestos for three years, and were horrified to think of the risks their little girl could have been exposed to in that time.

 Jenni’s godsons had been unaware that they were living in homes that contained asbestos. Fortunately, in both cases, it was spotted by builders doing small jobs in their homes

Peter and Jane’s house is a semi-detached family home, built in the 1930s. They’d spent a year completely unaware of the danger.

I wanted to share their experience as a warning to anyone who owns an older home, or maybe fancies themselves as a DIY whizz. We must keep sight of how widespread this problem is, in our private homes as well as shared civic buildings.

It’s why I’m so happy the Mail has begun a campaign to have asbestos removed from schools and hospitals.

Asbestos was used widely throughout the 20th century as a fire retardant. It’s possible it would have presented no risk to human health had it been safely concealed in well-maintained public buildings.

But schools and hospitals have not been well maintained and when cracks appear, or ceilings collapse, asbestos with its potentially lethal little filaments is released into the atmosphere. It’s breathed into the lungs and in thousands of cases has caused the deadly cancer, mesothelioma.

We’ve known for a long time what a dangerous substance we’ve been living with. In 1898, the annual report of the chief inspector of factories and workshops first noted the negative health effects of asbestos.

Yet – to us in the modern health and safety era – it seems incredible that asbestos was not banned in new construction projects until the mid-Eighties, for some types, or the Nineties, for others.

We now know a lot about the horror of the specific type of lung cancer caused by asbestos. Mesothelioma can take 20 or 30 years to develop after exposure. Once diagnosed it kills – and quickly.

That successive governments have ignored what has emerged about asbestos in schools and hospitals, shrinking no doubt from the sheer scale and cost of the problem, is appalling.

A report released to this newspaper concludes that at least 1,400 teachers and support staff and 12,600 former pupils have already died from mesothelioma since 1980. There are more than 32,000 schools in the UK and any built before 1999, when all forms of asbestos were finally banned, are likely to contain it.

One victim, teacher Dawn Hamilton who worked in Manchester’s Moss Side, wondered if it might have been risky for her to pin decorations on asbestos boards and ceiling tiles at Christmas.

Dawn died of mesothelioma in 2018. She had been diagnosed two-and-a-half years earlier, and was only 67. Stories like hers are common. And yet there has been no comprehensive national programme of inspection of schools and hospitals. This must be remedied.

In 2015, the Parliamentary Group on Occupational Health and Safety warned of a ‘time bomb’. How many of today’s pupils will be at risk of dying in late middle age as a result of continued government inaction?

And what about young people? How many are aware of the danger that may lurk in their new home?

Richard and his wife are fighting hard to keep their heads above water. Since they became parents, Helen’s earning capacity has been dented. She now works part-time and pays fees for childcare on the days she’s at work.

They thought they could manage as they had both spent a lot of time on YouTube learning essential building skills. They’d stripped ancient wallpaper. Updating the kitchen came next, and a plumber was called in. ‘What are you going to do about those ceiling tiles?’ he asked. Helen said they planned to strip them off. ‘Don’t,’ said the plumber. ‘They’ll have asbestos.’

Not a DIY job then. Could they pay the £4,500 they were quoted for an asbestos test and the safe removal of any found? They didn’t feel they had a choice.

It would mean waiting two or three years before they’d be able to afford a holiday, but they found the money – with a little help from the bank of Mum and Dad.

Meanwhile, his brother Peter, calling himself Bob the Builder, had taken out part of a wall to make a kitchen-diner bigger and was ordering the tools and materials to make new kitchen units, saving by doing it himself.

He couldn’t manage the proposed new windows though. A local builder came in to help. Entirely unexpectedly, he found asbestos as he began to remove the old frames. Again, a professional company was called in to check the whole house and remove the offending stuff.

I’m 74 and have done up four houses in my time. In one, I ripped off some horrible ceiling tiles and chucked them into a skip. In another I helped tear down an entire bedroom ceiling which was cracked and leaking.

It never occurred to me I might be messing about with asbestos, but I have no doubt that all the old houses in which I’ve lived will have had it. Maybe I’ve been lucky, but it’s certainly something of which young people, buying now, need to be aware.

We should expect the government to deal with the asbestos threatening teachers, schoolchildren, doctors, nurses and patients. That must be the priority – but help for those tackling asbestos at home should follow.

A campaign to make those young DIYers aware of what they might find. New rules for surveyors, who should include an asbestos assessment in their reports when a home is sold.

And perhaps a grant, similar to the boiler upgrade scheme, for those who need financial help to get asbestos out of their home.

It could be a life saver.

Keeping watch on my health

The Health Secretary Wes Streeting thinks magic watches (well, that’s what I call them) may be good for patients. I have an Apple one, given to me by my boys after my atrial fibrillation. It’s for falls that it’s miraculous. 

Jenni uses  her Apple watch to check her heart’s in normal rhythm after treatment for ‘a spot of’ atrial fibrillation – a condition that causes an irregular and often abnormally fast heart rate

I tripped recently and it asked if I needed the emergency services. If I’d been out cold, an ambulance would have come. But I can’t text on it. The letters are too small.

 Shirley’s secret at 64

Looking good for her age, Strictly judge Shirley Ballas wearing an elegant dress and shawl handily covering the bits older women rarely want to show

There were lots of beautifully dressed young women at the Pride of Britain awards this week, but it was the Strictly judge Shirley Ballas who stood out for me.

At 64 she looked fabulous, wearing an elegant dress and a shawl handily covering the bits we older women rarely want to show. 

She’s had a no-scalpel facelift – neogen plasma treatment, whatever that is – but who cares? It’s worked!

When the Chancellor Rachel Reeves dyed her hair from brown to red, I wondered if she was putting herself in competition with flame-haired Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner. 

Now, in time for the Budget, she’s dyed it back. Brown is better. More suited to the job.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has gone from red  hair to a more serious brown – just in time for her first Budget

I agree with the coroner who says dog walkers should be required to limit the number of dogs they take. 

A pack of big dogs can be dangerous and I want to protect my chihuahuas from bullies. 

Mind, big dogs are often mystified by my pups. ‘What are you, titch? You smell like a dog, but you don’t look like one!’