‘She used it to freshen up… it killed her’: My wife died of cancer at 63. She never smoked or drank. This is the everyday item that I believe caused her illness

There are many things that prey on Mark Fairweather’s mind when he thinks of his late wife, Eva. But what he said to her in the final days of her life was especially heartbreaking.

Holding his hand, she told her devoted husband of more than 40 years and father of her two children: ‘I just wanted to grow old with you.’

Mark, 67, a retired railway signalman from Eastbourne, East Sussex, had every expectation that this would happen.

Instead, their future suddenly changed after Eva was diagnosed with stage 4B ovarian cancer, the most advanced form of the disease, in 2019.

‘We wanted to travel, enjoy life, maybe move to Spain,’ says Mark, his voice cracking. ‘I just wanted to be with Eva, have fun, spend time together doing the things we like to do.’

Two years later, his pain runs deep, but what compounds Mark’s loss is his strong belief that Eva would be here today if she had not used talcum powder manufactured by Johnson & Johnson.

Mark has now joined a major legal case against the company involving more than 3,000 people in the UK who claim they or family members developed ovarian cancer or mesothelioma (a type of cancer) as a result of using Johnson’s Baby Powder between 1965 and 2023.

The lawsuit, submitted to the Supreme Court by KP Law two weeks ago, alleges that hydrated magnesium silicate, the main ingredient in talcum powder, is contaminated with asbestos, a known carcinogen, and that the company concealed this risk for decades. The case mirrors US trials in which juries have awarded billions of dollars in damages.

Johnson & Johnson withdrew the mineral talc from the UK market in 2023, three years after it was removed from the US and Canada, replacing it with corn starch: the company said this was due to falling demand following “misinformation” about the product’s safety.

‘My wife was 63 when she died,’ says Mark. ‘He did his best to live a healthy life.

‘She never smoked or drank, exercised, was a healthy weight and was always careful about what she ate and looked after herself.

‘But Eva had no idea that a supposedly harmless product she routinely used to freshen up could kill her,’ he adds.

‘I didn’t discover this connection until after he died and it is very difficult to put into words the pain and anger I feel. If only we had known or if he hadn’t used the talcum powder he would still be here.’

Tragically, Mark recalls being uneasy about Eva’s liberal use of talcum powder from the early days of their relationship.

He recalls: ‘I was in the Armed Forces in Northern Ireland and had just returned from leave when I met Eva. I instantly fell madly in love with him; It was so cheerful and beautiful.’

They married within a few months in 1984.

‘I remember how much he used this talc from the very beginning; every day, for example after a shower or bath. Every time he used so much, there was white powder everywhere and it was driving me crazy.

‘But I was also thinking: ‘This is a fine-grained powder that makes you want to choke when you breathe it in. How can it be good for you to use it so closely?’ I should have said something then.’

This concern is at the heart of the class action lawsuit.

‘Mineral talcum powder sold in the UK for decades contains asbestos, which can cause cancer if swallowed,’ explains Tom Longstaff, partner and head of product liability at KP Law.

‘Part of this claim is that Johnson & Johnson knew about these risks but did not disclose them to consumers for commercial reasons.’

A court date has not been set yet. In response to the lawsuit, Johnson & Johnson’s co-defendant company Kenvue (its consumer health arm) said its Baby Powder ‘complies with required regulatory standards, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer’.

The first sign of trouble was in August 2019 when Eva, who worked in data analysis, began experiencing chronic indigestion and stomach cramps.

Mark has joined a major legal case against Johnson & Johnson in the UK involving more than 3,000 people who claim that they or their family members developed ovarian cancer or mesothelioma as a result of using Johnson’s Baby Powder between 1965 and 2023.

Although I took over-the-counter antacids and Buscopan for stomach cramps, nothing worked. Giving up wheat in the belief that she might be gluten intolerant didn’t help either.

By December of the same year, Eva, normally reluctant to see a doctor, made an appointment: Mark instinctively decided to go with her. The doctor examined her stomach and said it was hard and resistant to pressure, and told the couple that Eva would need more tests.

‘We had no idea what it could be, and we didn’t think it could be cancer,’ Mark recalls.

‘But within a few days while waiting for a referral the pain worsened dramatically. Eva could not bend or barely move; We both panicked.’

Her appointment came just a week after she went to see her GP. After scans and blood tests, the consultant, a ‘friendly Australian man’, made the devastating diagnosis.

‘I remember him asking if we wanted the worst-case scenario – which we did – so he didn’t pull any punches,’ says Mark.

‘I’m afraid Eva, this is going to bite you in the ass,’ he said.

‘Some might have found it blunt, but it actually helped us process it. He was honest.

‘Of course when you hear that your mind goes into free fall. Part of you is in complete shock. And then little by little the system takes control and carries you with it.’

In February 2020, following her diagnosis, Eva underwent surgery to remove her ovaries, uterus, cervix and fallopian tubes due to the spread of the cancer: she then underwent six months of chemotherapy.

‘It was terrible for him,’ Mark says. ‘He felt sick, his hair fell out; Eva laughed when the doctor told her that her hair would grow back thicker, but it came back the same way (she always hated her hair!).

‘But we tried to do it in the best way possible. ‘We’d sit on the garden terrace in the summer sun and hope the chemotherapy would do the trick.’

After completing chemotherapy, Eva returned to work and the couple even managed a dream vacation to Egypt in the spring of 2022.

But soon after, blood tests showed Eva had elevated levels of CA125, a protein linked to ovarian cancer.

More chemotherapy followed, but Eva’s health deteriorated rapidly. He died in August 2023.

The pain for Mark and his daughters Katie, 42, and Clare, 35, was immense.

“This legal action won’t bring Eva back, but this company needs to be held accountable,” says Mark

And when Mark soon read that talc might be linked to ovarian cancer and that potential plaintiffs had to come forward, he didn’t hesitate.

One of the plaintiffs’ claims is that Johnson & Johnson ‘hidden information that could have shown its baby powder was contaminated with asbestos.’ Court documents also allege that the company ‘lobbyed regulators’ to ensure continued sale of its product.

So how might talc be linked to ovarian cancer? Justin Stebbing, oncologist and professor of biomedical sciences at Anglia Ruskin University, explains that one potential trigger is chronic inflammation or DNA damage, which can initiate cell changes.

He says he’s convinced there’s a link, pointing to a large study last year in the Journal of Clinical Oncology that included 50,884 women. A positive association was found between ovarian cancer and genital talc use.

“To me, this study was the most convincing evidence,” says Professor Stebbing. ‘It is very clear that there is a certain risk and the mechanism is clear.’

But Paul Pharoah, a former professor of cancer epidemiology at the University of Cambridge and now a research scientist at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, told Good Health that although there is a link, the cause has not been proven.

‘There is clear evidence that women who use talc in the genital area have a higher risk of epithelial ovarian cancer.’ [cancer in the outer layer of tissue].

“But correlation is not causation,” he added, saying other factors may also be at play.

But Mark has no doubt that talc caused his wife’s cancer.

‘This legal action will not bring Eva back, but this company needs to be held accountable,’ he says. ‘There was no point in allowing people like my wife to innocently and frequently use talc – and that’s the worst of it, it’s believed to be something soft and harmless. “He shouldn’t have died.”