Liz Darlison was instrumental in setting up Mesothelioma UK, an advice service that offers impartial, up-to-date information to patients diagnosed with the disease and their carers, and provides specialist nurse training in the field. Here she describes an educational visit to Australia–the centre of the mesothelioma epidemic

In autumn 2006, I was lucky enough to travel to Australia, thanks to a University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust grant, to observe the care and support of mesothelioma patients. Australia has the highest incidence of the disease in the world due to its industrial mining of asbestos, which lasted more than 100 years, and thorough research into the condition has been conducted (Leigh and Robinson 2002).