Mayor Rex Barnett has revealed that he is suffering from lung cancer.

The popular 72-year-old First Citizen has been recognised as Swindon’s last railway mayor, having spent eight years at the British Rail workshops.

Now, after being rushed to hospital last month, Rex – whose year-long term as mayor comes to an end next week – has been told he has epithelioid Mesothelioma.

“It is incurable but we are going to try to slow it down,” said Rex, who represents Haydon Wick and has lived in North Swindon all his life.

“When I heard the news I felt shock and disbelief; it hadn’t entered my head at that time as I believed I was only being treated for a chest infection and asthma.

“We were having such a brilliant year and then this happened.”

Rex will begin the first session of chemotherapy at the Great Western Hospital next Thursday, ironically the day before mayor-making and the Civic Dinner which will see Coun Ray Ballman take over the reins.

He will have six sessions of chemotherapy every three weeks at the Great Western Hospital.

“I don’t doubt I could delay the chemo, but I don’t want to because I want to fight this thing now,” said Rex.

“I think every day I fight it, the better off I will be – if I said I will do my final bit as mayor and the handover properly, I’m wasting my chances.”

Since hospital treatment at the GWH and Brompton Hospital, in London, last month, the mayor has reduced the number of engagements he and his wife Sandra, the mayoress, have attended. He intends to fulfil as many engagements as possible until next Thursday.

Mesothelioma has been dubbed the Swindon disease due to the large numbers of railway workers in the town who have contracted it.

Rex started work as an apprentice in the workshops in 1953 and was there until 1961, working in the carriage repair shop and on diesel multiple units, where asbestos was sprayed as insulation. Workers did not wear masks.

“I’m very unhappy that it has got me,” he said.

“I know it has got many more before me and I know they say it is going to peak in 2020, but it is tough.”

He and Sandra have been married for 50 years, celebrating their Golden Wedding anniversary last October. They have two daughters and four grandchildren.

Sandra said her husband was diagnosed in 1994 with pleural plaques, which was the first indication of exposure to asbestos.

Doctors said then that there was an 11 per cent chance of it turning into mesothelioma.

She said: “One of the Macmillan nurses told us that 50 years ago probably a speck of asbestos buried itself in the lung, and for the ones who are unfortunate it develops into a cancer.”

Rex urged other former railway workers to have regular X-rays so doctors can pick up the condition early.

He was overwhelmed with cards and messages of support when he was hospitalised but asked that rather than anyone sending him a card now, they should donate the money to charity instead and offer him their prayers.

Rex started his working life with the GWR at the Swindon Works and served a five-year apprenticeship as a gas fitter and plumber.

He was made redundant and became involved in the building of British Home Stores, Debenhams and the Princess Margaret Hospital before moving into engineering sales.

Rex served as a Swindon and Wiltshire councillor in the late 1960s and early 1970s until pressure of work forced him to stand down. He has recently become a governor again at Greenmeadow Primary School having been chairman of Haydon Wick and Greenmeadow schools and a governor of Headlands Grammar School.