A FORMER British Nuclear Fuels worker and his wife, whose children died of cancer-related illnesses, plan to take their case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Joe McMaster -- a former chemist at BNFL Springfields, near Preston, for about 30 years -- and his wife Stella, claim the deaths of their three daughters were connected to his involvement in the nuclear industry.

The couple, of Greystock Avenue, Fulwood, are planning a meeting with BNFL to gain access to Joe's medical records which, they claim, will disclose he was exposed to radiation 18 times the level he normally showed.

Mrs McMaster wants her husband's former employer to acknowledge that he ingested dangerous levels of enriched uranium during an incident at work in 1953.

However this has been repeatedly denied by BNFL and successive governments.

Last Saturday the couple met Fulwood and Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans who is supporting them in their tireless campaign.

Mrs McMaster said: "I will not give up. I know they are waiting for me to die, but I will take this to the highest court.

"I don't want my children to have died in vain."

In a separate incident the McMaster family were on holiday near Sellafield, Cumbria, in October 1957, when there was a fire at one of the reactors.

It was after these two incidents that two of their daughters became ill. Lynne, born in 1950, died 38 years later of a pre-leukaemia condition while second daughter Jill, born in 1955, died aged 18, of acute leukaemia.

Another daughter Judith, was born prematurely and survived only three days. Stella also miscarried a child in 1954.

Just before last Christmas Mrs McMaster wrote to Prime Minister Tony Blair pleading the couple's case.

A reply was sent to Mr Evans from Brian Wilson, minister of state for energy and construction at the Department for Trade and Industry. It made no reference to the two incidents.

Alan Beauchamp, spokesman for BNFL Springfield, said: "We are aware of the McMasters and the tragic details of their case. We are quite happy to invite them back for further discussions."