There are many things that haunt 67-year-old Mark Fairweather when he thinks of his late wife, Eva. But one memory won’t leave him — the last words she whispered as he held her hand.
For more than forty years, they had shared everything — two children, quiet evenings, dreams of retiring somewhere warm. Eva’s voice was faint that day, but her words pierced him: “I just wanted to get old with you.”
Mark thought they would. They had plans to travel, maybe move to Spain, and enjoy the life they’d built. But in 2019, everything changed in an instant.
Only after her death did Mark discover a shocking detail — one that made him believe Eva’s tragedy might never have happened at all.
Eva, who had always lived healthily — never smoked, rarely drank, and exercised regularly — was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer at 63. Two years later, she was gone. And now Mark is one of thousands joining a massive legal claim against a global company whose product, he believes, killed his wife.
More than 3,000 people across the UK have filed a case against Johnson & Johnson, alleging that their famous baby powder — used for decades by millions — was contaminated with asbestos, a known carcinogen. The company is accused of concealing the risk while continuing to sell the product.
Johnson & Johnson denies the allegations, insisting its baby powder met all safety standards and contained no asbestos. It withdrew mineral talc from the UK market in 2023, replacing it with corn starch after demand fell amid what it called “misinformation.”
Mark recalls that Eva used talc daily since the early days of their marriage in 1984. “There’d be white dust everywhere,” he says. “I remember thinking — if it makes you choke when you breathe it in, how can it be safe to use so closely to your skin?”
In 2019, Eva began suffering from stomach cramps and indigestion. Within months, scans revealed the devastating diagnosis. Despite surgery and chemotherapy, the disease spread rapidly. She died in August 2023.
When Mark later read about the possible link between talc and ovarian cancer, “everything suddenly made sense,” he says. “She trusted that it was harmless. If only we had known.”
Scientists remain divided. Some studies suggest talc particles can cause chronic inflammation and DNA damage, leading to cancer, while others say evidence of causation remains inconclusive.
But Mark has no doubts. “This lawsuit won’t bring Eva back,” he says quietly. “But someone has to answer for what happened. She believed it was safe — and it cost her life.”
