'We were covered in soot': Former RAF airman proves incurable cancer caused by helicopter exhaust fumes

A former RAF airman has won compensation after proving his incurable bone marrow cancer was caused by years of exposure to helicopter exhaust fumes.

Zach Stubbings was diagnosed with a multiple myeloma while he was stationed at RAF Valley, Anglesey, as a winch operator in 2011.

The father-of-two later uncovered documents proving that concerns had been expressed about the safety of Sea King helicopters since the 1990s. 

The Sea King was decommissioned in 2016 after 37 years of service and taking part in almost every major conflict during that time, including the Gulf and Bosnian Wars.

Zach is now warning other former Sea King air crew of the dangers - one of whom being the Duke of Cambridge, who was also posted on Anglesey.

Zach said blood tests for an unrelated rash had revealed a paraprotein, which is a symptom of the disease.

"It was just by fluke, otherwise it would have rumbled away in the background without me even knowing.

"I just had no symptoms, I was totally asymptomatic. I was cycling to work everyday, I was running every lunch time, so I was fit and healthy."

He continued working while doctors started investigating his condition.

"One of the doctors said, 'You'd better start thinking about the future'.

"The paraprotein was increasing every time. Little did I know I was still flying on the Sea King, so I was still being exposed to the exhaust fumes."

He was later posted to RAF Cranwell, in Lincolnshire, where he was no longer flying the helicopter. But the paraprotein continued to increase.

He started chemotherapy in December 2012, which continued for almost a year until he received a stem cell transplant in October 2013.

He was medically discharged from the RAF in 2015.

It was only when a consultant asked him whether he had been exposed to anything - due to the fact the type of cancer was typically seen in older patients - that he started questioning the cause of his diagnosis.

"I then started thinking, well I have flown on helicopters for quite a while and I used to sit under a radar.

"So I just typed in 'causes of multiple myeloma' and it came up with diesel exhaust fumes.

"The Sea King runs on avtur, which is basically a more refined diesel."

Following that discovery, Zach found a health and safety report linking diesel and myeloma, and carried out a Freedom of Information request into reports on exposure of helicopter rear crew to exhaust fumes.

"We were covered in it," he said.

"If you look at the side of a Sea King, you'll see there's a line from the starboard exhaust that goes straight to the top corner of the cargo door, which is where our heads were when we were winching."

Further research led to the discovery of old reports that recommended modifying the Sea King.

"You used to come back and be covered in soot, your clothes were stinking, your yellow helmet was covered in soot and horribleness, you were coughing up black stuff occasionally.

"But you were constantly told 'it's fine', and never made aware that there were recommendations made."

He applied for a war disability claim, which was accepted and acknowledged that his cancer had been caused by his service in the RAF.

But unsatisfied with the compensation he was granted, Zach contacted a solicitor.

"It was a pittance really - £35 a week for having cancer. It was like, really?"

After putting forward a legal case, Zach accepted an out-of-court settlement with the Ministry of Defence.

He said he has since been inundated with calls from others in the RAF concerned about their own health.

Zach said he will have cancer for the rest of his life, but "it's whether it's active or non-active" that determines how well he is.

"It's never going to go away, and at some point it will come back, and it will effectively be another year of chemotherapy.

"I take every day as it comes. We'll just have to deal with it at the time. I try not to think about it."

Reflecting on his time in the RAF, Zach said: "I look back with fondness. It wasn't the lads that I was working with that concealed it, and I enjoyed the time I had in the RAF.

"The RAF, as a whole, treated me amazingly when I was ill."

An MOD spokesperson said: "The health and safety of our personnel is of the utmost importance and we are committed to providing a safe working environment.

"Three studies undertaken by the RAF Centre of Aviation Medicine into Sea King found there were no definitive conclusions in terms of risk to health. RAF Sea King reached the end of service in 2016."

Last year he married Anna-Louise Bates, from Cardiff, whose husband Stuart and seven-year-old son Fraser were killed in a car crash in 2015.

They met through Anna-Louise's charity, Believe, which she set up to campaign and highlight the need for organ donations in the days following her tragic double loss.

Despite what they have both endured, the couple focus on the positives.

"You've got to have a positive mental attitude. That's what got me through the first bout of chemotherapy, my boys were really young, I looked at them and thought, it's not beating me," Zach said.

Anna-Louise added: "You never know what's around the corner, but you can't go through life like that.

"Seize the day, make memories and do what you can to help other people."