AN army veteran who was left crippled with breathing difficulties after being blown up by an IRA bomb fears proposed home improvements will expose him to asbestos.

Ian Roberts, 41, who was medically discharged after eight years in the Kings Division, has had X-rays at Southend Hospital for breathing problems he fears are being made worse by asbestos in his Southchurch flat.

Charity Haig Homes, which provides the flat in Lloyd Wise Close, has offered to clear the problem over two days if Mr Roberts, who served in Iraq and Northern Ireland, puts all his possessions in one room one day and another the next.

But the former gunner, who can hardly walk after the bomb shattered his knee and broke both his ankles in 1992, cannot move his things and fears sleeping in the house as the asbestos is removed - one fibre of which can cause terminal lung cancer.

Mr Roberts said: “It’s an absolute disgrace the way they expect me to move furniture and be present in the property when they rip the asbestos up. It doesn’t matter how small the fibres are, they are deadly.”