A WIDOW who lost her former railway worker husband to cancer says he could have lived longer if he had spoken out about his illness.

An inquest yesterday heard how Philip Dixon died from lung cancer as a result of years of asbestos exposure.

Mr Dixon, of Coxstalls, Wootton Bassett, was 81 when he passed away last September and had worked as a precision machinist grinder for 45 years, before retiring at the age of 63 through ill health.

His widow Lucy said he had battled silently with his illness.

"He was the type of person who kept everything to himself," she said.

"With his illness he never once complained.

"While he was in hospital they said if they had more patients like him it would be an easier job."

Mrs Dixon told the inquest, at Gablecross police station, how she used to shake the dust from her husband's work overcoat oblivious to the dangers of asbestos.

Her husband was diagnosed with lung cancer in August 2005 and died a month later in the Ladymead Nursing Home in Wroughton.

Mrs Dixon, who attended the inquest with other members of her family, said: "If he had had a bit of a louder mouth and not taken everything so placidly we probably would have found it sooner."

The inquest heard how Mr Dixon's workspace was next to the boiler room contaminated with asbestos.

When he retired he was having difficulty breathing but his condition was put down to asthma.

Recording a verdict of industrial death, Wiltshire coroner David Masters said Mr Dixon's job had led to his death.

"He had been employed for some 45 years at the railway works where quite clearly he had been exposed to asbestos," he said.

"Although not directly in the workshop where he was engaged with work he was next to it and had to go through it while going about his work over a considerable period."

The cancer that Mr Dixon died from was adenocarcinoma.

Mr Masters said: "It was a disease derived from exposure to asbestos in the work place."