Her death due to pulmonary asbestosis was the first such case to be described in medical literature, and the first published account of disease attributed to occupational asbestos exposure.

[3] Her employers, Turner Brothers Asbestos, accepted no liability for her injuries, paid no compensation to her bereaved family and refused to contribute towards funeral expenses as it "would create a precedent and admit responsibility".

Because Kershaw's medical certificate (produced by her local physician Walter Scott Joss) recorded the diagnosis as "asbestos poisoning" she was ineligible for National Health Insurance sickness benefits.

[2][3] As the illness was linked to her occupation, the insurers advised her that she should instead seek sickness benefits from her employers, under the Workmen's Compensation Act, and wrote to Turner Brothers on her behalf on several occasions.

However, Turner Brothers refused to pay any benefits because asbestos-related illness was not a recognised occupational disease at that time, and instructed their insurance company to "repudiate the claim" as it would be "exceedingly dangerous" to accept "any liability whatever in such a case.

[9] Mackichan gave the cause of death as "pulmonary tuberculosis and heart failure" but a further adjournment was granted for microscopic examination of the lungs.

"[7] William Edmund Cooke, a pathologist and bacteriologist at Wigan Infirmary and Leigh Infirmary, testified that his examination of the lungs indicated old scarring indicative of a previously healed tuberculosis infection, and in addition, extensive fibrosis, in which were visible "particles of mineral matter ... of various shapes, but the large majority have sharp angles.

The memorial service was organised by the Save Spodden Valley campaign, an action group concerned about asbestos contamination on the former Turner's factory site where Kershaw had been employed.