Mr Fluffy tragedy: Widow speaks out on Nicholas Blandford's death

She might stay there for hours, sipping from a cup of tea under the shade of the tree which hangs over Nicholas Blandford's final resting place.

She'll be alone. She won't speak, just contemplate.

The staff at Woden Cemetery used to give her strange looks, she says. But not any more.

She's been visiting the cemetery every third day for the past year. On the eighth day of each month she brings a candle, lighting a flame she keeps alight for the entire day.

"It is a sort of symbolic thing, that the spirit is alive. The flame keeps his memory alive," she tells The Canberra Times.

"I lost my faith after Nick died. But this ritual, I think there is some salvation by just saying some prayers."

When Paula Blandford visits the cemetery on Tuesday morning - December 8 - it will be 12 months to the day since her husband died, aged 70.

Mr Blandford had been diagnosed about 15 months earlier with mesothelioma, an incurable disease she believes was acquired from exposure to the Mr Flufffy asbestos which had been pumped into their Curtin home decades earlier.

Mrs Blandford, who still lives in the Mr Fluffy home, has never spoken publicly about her husband's disease, or the trauma of owning one of the more than 1000 Canberra homes known to have contained the potentially deadly substance.

The Blandfords, both retired Commonwealth public servants, were private people, she says. The couple never wanted to create "waves", fearing the potential repercussions of speaking out against either the territory or federal governments.

But on the first anniversary of her husband's death, a death she's adamant could and should have been prevented, she wants to speak.

For Nick. Her beloved Nick.

"I don't want to stay silent any longer because I feel there will be no justice for Nick's suffering and death," Mrs Blandford says from the kitchen table of her Jennings Street home.

"This anniversary has given me this momentum - as well as the momentum that has been created by the other brave people who have come forward - to be a voice for Nick.

"I want to draw awareness and more consciousness to the fact that he suffered because of the irresponsibility and incompetence of two governments."

Mrs Blandford has been emboldened by the stories of mesothelioma sufferers which have emerged in the past week, hoping to seize on the momentum to pressure both the ACT government and Commonwealth to "show leadership and take responsibility for the tragedy they have inflicted on us".

The ACT government last week announced it was looking to establish a scheme to financially support people diagnosed with the disease as a result of exposure to Mr Fluffy asbestos.

It came after it agreed to cover up to $250,000 worth of medical expenses for mesothelioma sufferer James Wallner.

Mr Wallner believes the Commonwealth should be the one responsible for covering the medical bills of victims, given it was in charge of the territory when Mr Fluffy insulation was used.

The federal government has rebuffed those calls, prompting the Wallner family to accuse it of "passing the buck".

Mrs Blandford also wants the federal government to pay up, not just for medical expenses but for counselling and other support services.

The grandmother also wants to be allowed to stay in her Curtin home beyond 2025, the point at which the ACT government has said it would consider compulsorily acquiring Mr Fluffy properties which had yet to be demolished.

She doesn't want to leave the garden her husband created. She doesn't want the citrus trees or the beloved gum tree he planted to be ripped up.

"I want to continue living on this property because I feel closest to Nick. This was his baby," she says.

The Blandfords bought the Curtin home in 1982, a week-and-a-half before their first child was born.

Mrs Blandford believes her husband was exposed to asbestos after spending time in the house's roof cavity when they first moved in, and again when he assisted builders with a renovation in 1988.

A fit and active man for his age, who loved golf, bushwalking and cycling, Mr Blandford was sent for scans in July 2018 after experiencing bouts of breathlessness.

A lung biopsy later confirmed he had mesothelioma.

"My daughter, who is a nurse, told me that if it's a fast-growing cancer then dad will be gone by Christmas. What do you do? You cannot say anything, you don't know what to say. You don't know how to feel - it's just numb," she says.

Three weeks after the diagnosis, the couple went to lunch at Double Shot in Deakin to celebrate their 37^th wedding anniversary.

Mrs Blandford was glad she captured a photo of her husband smiling that day. On their next anniversary, he was confined to a chair, bleeding uncontrollably from his nose.

He suffered a brain haemorrhage on December 6, 2019. He died two days later.

The immense suffering Mr Blandford endured in his final months torments his wife. The image of him in anguish, beside the oxygen machine which assisted him 24/7 haunts her, especially when she sits beside his grave at Woden Cemetery.

The happiest memories, of overseas trips and young love, sometimes only return in her dreams.

She despairs that her husband won't be able to meet his two new grandchildren or celebrate their 40^th wedding anniversary next September.

It is a permanent pain relieved only - and even then, only slightly - by a sense that her husband's spirit remains in the red bricks and red gums of their Curtin home.

"This is the connection I have to Nick, that I can continue to nurture the thing he loved the most - his garden," she says.

"I feel comfortable around here.

"I feel safe."