THE impact of mesothelioma has, like the disease itself, crept up on Swindon.

Hundreds have died from the disease. Hundreds more are ill and are likely to fall victim in future months and years.

All this has happened because of an ignorance about the deadly effects of asbestos dust.

Workers spent their day in an atmosphere where it snowed asbestos. They even threw the stuff at each other during their breaks, unaware of the effect the substance was having on their lungs.

Today the Evening Advertiser launches a campaign for our town to recognise the workers.

We are not asking for grand memorials costing thousands of pounds. It may be something as simple like a memorial garden where families of victims can remember their lost loved-ones.

But we do want to rectify the shameful lack of recognition of an illness that has become so associated with the town that it has become dubbed the Swindon Disease.

And we believe the companies that are now benefiting from the toil of the railway workers have a moral duty to contribute to the cost of a memorial.

They include the Designer Outlet Village, which now owns the former railway works; First Great Western, which has inherited the name and maintained the traditional link with the town and the railways; and the legal companies making money by representing victims and their families.

We will not rest until we succeed in setting up a permanent tribute to those who have died. We hope the will is there for it to happen sooner rather and later.

It is the least we can do to say thank-you to a generation who sacrificed themselves so needlessly.