The local church is fund-raising for the support group

The cancer has killed hundreds of former workers from the town's railway workshops, who died after being exposed to asbestos.

Some victims have received compensation after a ruling in the House of Lords last year, but say they receive little moral and emotional support.

This is set to change with the creation of the support group, and a new garden of remembrance for asbestos victims in the town.

Councillor Derek Benfield, who worked at GWR and is now the Mayor of Swindon, told the BBC: "We used to make snowballs with asbestos occasionally. I worked with it on the boiler mountains."

The local church - whose parish used to be mainly made up of the Great Western Railway workers - is fund-raising for the support group.