A MAN from Swanmore died not as result of asbestos exposure but from smoking, an inquest heard.

Roger Cutting, of Upper Swanmore, had worked in Portsmouth Dockyard in the 1970s and died at Countess Mountbatten House hospice on August 6 last year.

Coroner for central Hampshire Grahame Short heard that the 65-year-old was exposed to asbestos during that time, but consultant pathologist Dr Adnan Al-Badritold told the hearing he did not believe this to be the cause of death.

He said that Mr Cutting had a particularly aggressive form of cancer, the result of smoking cigarettes when he was younger.