THE widow of a Cranwell serviceman told the High Court she is convinced her husband's fatal cancer was connected to radiation exposure.

Wendy Brothers, 70, from Cranwell, is one of more than 1,000 claimants who say they or their loved ones suffered illnesses because of exposure to ionising radiation during nuclear tests in the South Pacific during the 1950s.

Mrs Brothers took the stand at the High Court on Monday and told judge Mr Justice Foskett she will always be convinced radiation exposure was at least partly responsible for her husband John's death.

She said: "It was precisely John's job to fly through the mushroom clouds and I still believe his atomic service was partly responsible."

Her 67-year-old husband died from cancer of the oesophagus in 2000.

Mr Brothers was one of the RAF's top navigators when he was sent to Christmas Island with 76 Squadron in 1956 and 1957.

Under cross-examination, Mrs Brothers accepted her husband's 20-a-day cigarette habit may have magnified the risks of cancer.

Ministry of Defence lawyers are arguing the surviving atomic veterans and the widows of those who have already died have left it too late to sue.

The hearing is expected to last another two weeks.