A FORMER miner who spent 20 years working on the coal face died of industrial disease, an inquest heard.

The hearing was told Polish John Szarko, 77, had had difficulty breathing in the last months of his life and had stopped breathing twice.

Acting East Lancs Coroner Richard Taylor recorded a verdict that Mr Szarko died of industrial disease after hearing there was evidence he had chronic obstructive airways disease.

The inquest, at Burnley Magistrates' Court, was told Mr Szarko, born in Poland in 1925, died at his home on Waterloo Road, Burnley, on July 10.

Pathologist Dr Walid Salman, who carried out a post mortem examination two days later, said there was evidence of chronic bronchitis, emphysema and heart disease.

Mr Szarko's son David John, of Chiltern Avenue, Burnley, said after his father was demobbed following the Second World War, he went to work at a cement works in Clitheroe and then at a brick works in Accrington.

In the early 1960s his father began working at Bank Hall mine and stayed there until it shut down in the mid 1970s. Mr Szarko then went to work at two more collieries until 1983 and finished just before his 65th birthday.

Mr Szarko said his father's breathing had gradually got worse in the last few months of his life and twice he stopped breathing.

He told the hearing: "He just looked like he was vacant and I had to shock him to start again."

He added Mr Szarko had previously been a smoker but had given up between 10 and 15 years ago.