A woman whose father died as a result of working in a coal mine has been offered just over £70 to end her five-year legal battle.

Ernest Jackson died in 1955, aged 44, after contracting asthma, bronchitis and emphysema from breathing coal dust all of his working life.

He had spent 26 years working at Parkhouse Colliery in Staffordshire.

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More than 50 years later, British Coal has admitted causing Mr Jackson's death but offered his daughter Gillian O'Callaghan just £72.40 compensation.

Mrs O'Callaghan, from Shrewsbury, Shropshire, said she was "absolutely disgusted" with the offer.

" I was completely dumbfounded with the amount, it doesn't seem to make sense," said the 55-year-old.

"I am totally appalled at the way I have been treated. It's not about the money, it's the principle that my dad died doing a service and he probably would have lived much longer if he had not been down a mine most of his life.

"I was robbed of a dad at such a young age and I feel I owe it to him to continue fighting this case."

The mother-of-one, who was just five when her father died, launched her legal battle for compensation in 2001 after seeing a TV advert encouraging former miners and their families to claim.

The case has cost Mrs O'Callaghan almost £1,000, and she has been told that an appeal would set her back a further £2,500, with the maximum entitlement being only £500.

She continued: "When I sought legal advice about making a claim I was told that I had every entitlement yet they are now trying to fob me off with next to nothing.

"Their offer is probably worse than receiving nothing at all, it's an insult to my father's memory.

"I have spent five years working on this with my husband and brother and they haven't even offered to pay costs. It's a bit like being hit in the face."

Mrs O'Callaghan has vowed to keep appealing against the payout.

A letter from the Department of Trade and Industry, acting on behalf of British Coal, advised that the "date of guilty knowledge" in the respiratory disease judgement was set as June 4 1954, meaning companies are only liable to pay out for workers who contracted breathing difficulties after this date.

Compensation has only been offered for the 11 months from the date of guilty knowledge to the date he died.

DTI spokeswoman Eurwen Thomas said: "It was judged that before this date, with the knowledge and technology available to British Coal at that time, they would not have been expected to be aware of the risks."