Ellen Barns was the inspiration for this website. We spoke to her about our idea for a website which could create a community for patients, carers and the general public and she was excited by the idea and happy to help us. Unfortunately, within a year, she had succumbed to mesothelioma but she continued to be the person we had in the forefront of our minds as we worked to make the website a reality. Here her husband Ian Barns tells the story of their experience of asbestos-related disease.

We met her at the launch of the National Centre for Asbestos Related Diseases in November 2006 where she spoke of the need for an Australian resource which could provide information and support for people like herself suffering from asbestos-related cancer.  In her own research into her disease she had found herself relying on international sites which were removed from the Australian experience.