'Help me solve the mystery of Maureen's illness'

Within its glass-fronted five storeys was high fashion for the young woman about town and sensible outfits for the more mature. There was china and household essentials, menswear, children's clothes and a pleasant rooftop caf with views across the town.

For seven years, Maureen Wood worked hard both on the shopfloor and behind the scenes. Pretty and vivacious, she loved music, adored showing off her trim legs in her favourite short skirts and had a natural knack for making people laugh.

The mum-of-two was a familiar face at Goldbergs years at a time when the Tollcross shop was among the busiest stores in the country.

When it closed in 1990, Maureen fondly recalled happy times there with colleagues and friends.

That should have brought to an end the mum's links with the bustling Edinburgh store. So how could it be possible that her time there may have condemned her to a terrible sentence, one which would come back to haunt her and her loving family 20 years later?

And did Maureen eventually lose her life because of where she worked?

Today, ask David Wood to sum up the loss of wife Maureen to an asbestos-related condition and he responds with a bitter shake of his head.

"I feel like someone's ripped out my heart and stamped on it," he says, eyes flashing with rage. When he stands up, his jacket hangs loose around his wasted frame: "Look at me," he adds, angrily tugging at it, "I've lost two stones. That's what this does to you.

"When people use the word 'devastation', invariably those are people who don't know what it means."

David has been painfully recalling the loss of the woman he met when she was just 16 and he was 19, and who went on to be his wife for 41 years.

He has patiently explained how, when she died on February 25 aged just 58, it was after a determined and brave fight that stretched across five difficult years. And how, when Maureen learned she had a life-threatening condition with a strange name, her response was typical for her: she cracked a joke and pointed out that mesothelioma sounded like some Greek holiday resort.

With the consultant's diagnosis still ringing in their ears, David remembers them both walking out of the hospital and, still numb, going for a pizza and then to the pictures. "We couldn't take it in," he says.

All the time Maureen's horoscope for the day was rattling around her head: "You will have mental moments of clarity," it had predicted.

Five years on and clarity is the one thing David yearns for.Questions over why his wife ended up with an illness more commonly connected with men working in heavy industry - mesothelioma tends to be associated with shipbuilding on the Clyde, plumbers and carpenters, not women in shops - gnaw at him so much that he is now determined to unravel them for himself.

The very nature of asbestos - the fact that it's hidden in so many places and that its deadly impact lies dormant for many years - makes his challenge desperately difficult. But as he's rewound Maureen's life and work, David now believes it's possible its root may lie behind the scenes at that Edinburgh shop.

Which is why today he's launched a personal appeal for anyone who worked at Goldbergs at Tollcross to come forward, whether they knew Maureen personally or simply recall work being carried out at the shop.

"I don't know where Maureen was exposed to asbestos," he stresses, "but I do believe the firmest evidence I've found points to Goldbergs."

His search for answers took him to old documents retained by Edinburgh City Council relating to the demolition of the Goldbergs building in Tollcross. There he found reference to various types of asbestos in the building, including Amosite, one of its most deadly forms.

"The report mentioned asbestos and all the precautions that the council was insisting on during the demolition, such as sealing off the whole area with a special type of material. They were concerned about the workmen and members of the public," he explains.

"But no-one was aware of the asbestos when Maureen was working there. She worked in the stockroom, which was in the basement. It was a dirty place to work, particularly the office. They were always moving things about too."

Asbestos was commonly used in the construction of many buildings until the late 1990s, when its use was finally outlawed. Its heat and fire resistant properties meant it was regularly used for ceiling tiles and wall panels.

Left alone and undisturbed, it is usually relatively safe. However, if asbestos particles are released and inhaled - perhaps during repair work or demolition - the impact can be deadly. Asbestos-related conditions often take decades to emerge, making it complicated and challenging to track down the source.

David, 60, believes someone might remember his wife at the shop and perhaps can help solve the mystery.

"Maureen worked there between 1981 and 1987. She was in the stockroom and the shoe department, the china department, and at Wrygges, the women's fashion department. She was a part-time model - she was gorgeous - 5ft 4in, brown hair that she changed all the time, sometimes long, sometimes curly."She had a friend, Doreen, and she was fond of the handyman there, Solly or Solomon, who was thought to be related to the Goldbergs family."

The couple lived in Gilmerton at the time with son Paul, now 40, and Karen, 38, later moving to East Calder while the children remained at Holyrood High School before the family eventually moved to Dunblane.

Maureen's health was fine until late 2004, when she developed problems with fluid gathering in the lining of her lung. That can be a classic symptom of asbestos-related cancer. It took several months to confirm largely because she did not fit the normal pattern for the disease. David is now working with a Glasgow law firm and his search for answers is being supported by Clydeside Action on Asbestos.

A spokesperson for the campaign group says: "Mesothelioma is an incredibly painful experience for victims and their families. Finding the root cause and who was responsible for asbestos exposure can go a long way to helping victims and their families deal with the illness and get justice.

"People who used to work at Goldbergs could hold answers to Maureen Wood's mesothelioma, so if anyone was working there at the same time and can remember any possibility of being exposed to asbestos then it's important they get in touch."

Can you help? Contact Thompsons Solicitors on 0800 801 299.