Bernard Dean has died after a 20-month battle against asbestos-related illness mesothelioma. In that time he called on the Prime Minister to do more to help people like him and took part in an international drug trial in a bid to find a cure.

THE night before he died, Bernard Dean lay in his hospital bed and asked his wife to do one thing for him.

The 61-year-old took off his wedding ring, handed it to Susan and told her to find a gold chain and hang it around her neck.

Susan was taken aback because her husband was not normally sentimental.

And at that point, she still believed he would battle through his hospital stay and come home again.

But looking back, she sees it as a sign that Bernard knew his time was drawing to an end.

Susan, 60, of Stevens Road, Sandiacre, said: "I did what he said – I took it home and found a necklace and put it on.

"I think he knew what was going to happen. Honest to God, I think he knew.

"But he was optimistic right to the end. We didn't expect him to go when he did."

On the morning of Bernard's last day, Susan called Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre and spoke to him on the phone.

She said: "He just said that he'd been poorly in the night and that he'd see me that afternoon during visiting hours.

"But then the hospital phoned back later that morning to say that he'd deteriorated."

So Susan rushed to the hospital with their children, Helen, 35, and Mark, 38.

And Mark's two children, Jamie, 17, and Yasmin, 15, were also there after travelling down from Scotland with their father a few days before.

They found Bernard with his eyes closed and unable to speak, although hospital staff said he could still hear.

Just moments before he died, Helen handed him a wooden cross which he was particularly attached to and used to carry around in his pocket.

He had been given it months before by Tim Sumpter, a padre with Derbyshire's cadet force, where he was an area commander.

Susan said: "Helen gave him the cross and I felt his hand tighten around it and around my hand.

"He never admitted he was religious but I think he used to find comfort in some of the things that Tim used to speak to him about.

"Then it was as though he held his breath in and it just didn't come out again."

He died last Saturday at about 5pm.

His death came 20 months after he was diagnosed with the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma, which affects the lungs.

Decades earlier, he had been exposed to asbestos while working as a joiner for Erewash Borough Council.

He recently received compensation from the authority, which employed him from 1977 to 1981 to carry out refurbishment work on council properties.

He recalled various occasions where he took asbestos out of garage doors, bus stops, doors and windows.

But although he had successfully received a payout, Bernard campaigned on behalf of those who had not been so lucky.

In December last year, by which time he was seriously ill with cancer, he travelled to Nottingham to speak about compensation with the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.

He called on him to set up a fund for people who had been exposed to asbestos but could not get compensation because the employers responsible for the exposure were no longer in business. Susan said: "He really was a campaigner for the cause."

And after being diagnosed, he put himself forward for treatment in the hope that it would help him or pave the way to finding a cure for future mesothelioma patients.

At the start of this year he became the first person in the world with the illness to take the cancer drug LDE225 after signing up to a clinical trial in Leicester.

But in April he was left devastated after his first scan since beginning the treatment showed that one of the three tumours in his lungs had spread.

As a result, he was taken off the trial.

Susan said: "He was always thinking of somebody else.

"He'd put himself through treatment just to help others with the disease.

"It was brave of him to do that drug trial. He was devastated when he was told that he couldn't carry on."

Bernard's health got rapidly worse in the weeks before his death.

As a result of his breathing problems he was attached to a portable oxygen cylinder round-the-clock.

He had been rushed into hospital several weeks before his death and spent a week there after struggling to breathe.

He also suffered pain in his stomach, which Susan believes was caused by the cancer spreading.

Susan said: "He was so brave, he never used to say how much it hurt but we know that it did.

"Just one time he got really upset and said he'd had enough with his breathing problems."

But she said Bernard remained largely optimistic, making plans to see a show at Derby's Assembly Rooms and go on holiday to Cornwall.

And until relatively recently he continued to be involved with Derbyshire's cadet force.

He was a major with the force, which he joined in 1986, and worked first as an instructor, then as an area commander.

Most recently, he arranged for 150 trees to be planted at Markeaton Park to mark the 150th anniversary of the cadets.

David Elsam, cadet chief executive officer for Derbyshire, said 12 senior cadets and staff would hold a guard of honour at the funeral.

He said: "I can only express how the county is saddened by his passing and send our condolences to Susan and the family."

The funeral will be held at 3.30pm at All Saints' Church, in Risley, on Friday, September 3. All are welcome. Flowers welcome or donations to Derbyshire Asbestos Support Team or Treetops Hospice.