Nicola Anderson's son Liam died from mesothelioma, an incurable cancer caused by asbestos exposure, aged just 20 – one of the youngest recorded cases. Specialists in the field say they are increasingly treating patients in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s rather than the traditional 70s and 80s, and many believe school exposure is the likely cause, since the disease typically takes 20 to 60 years to develop after exposure and most schools were built with asbestos-containing materials.

Liam's primary school in Norfolk featured on a 2016 council list of 392 schools known to contain asbestos, though his family cannot confirm exactly where he was exposed. The Department for Education estimates more than 75 per cent of Britain's 30,000-plus schools contain asbestos, rising above 80 per cent in England, while over 90 per cent of NHS hospitals are also affected. A 2024 report by the Joint Union Asbestos Committee estimates at least 12,600 former pupils and 1,400 teachers have died from mesothelioma since 1980, with "hundreds of thousands" more deaths expected, and research shows children exposed at age five face five times the risk of those exposed at 30.