FORMER Gwent miner Vivian Edwards started his battle for compensation for chest disease eight years ago.

Now Mr Edwards, 80, has another fight on his hands, as he is also hoping to secure a pay-out for knee damage if test cases prove successful.

He praised the Argus campaign to help win compensation for ex-colliers suffering osteoarthritis in their knees.

Mr Edwards, of Newnham Place, Cwmbran, says that compensation should be paid out more quickly than the payments to former pitmen with chest diseases.

He also praised the Argus' six-year Justice for Miners campaign to speed up those payments.

"I don't think anyone would have been paid if it had not been for the Argus," he said.

"The fight they've done for the miners is tremendous."

He has still not received payment for the chronic bronchitis he says he has suffered since 1970 after 21 years at West Elliott Colliery, New Tredegar.

He put in his claim in 1998, shortly after the test cases for chest disease compensation were won in the High Court.

He was made an offer in 2000, but turned down the £534.81 he was offered, saying it was "pitiful". He is having more health tests in a bid to prove he is entitled to a better offer.

"I spent all of those years working in the three-foot seams - on my knees all of the time," he said, adding his knees would swell up after shifts in the pit.

"I would be working down there for eight or nine hours a day, sometimes ten hours, for six days a week."

He now also suffers from osteoarthritis in his hip and back - and has problems with his toes, which he believes were also caused by kneeling in the mines.

He uses a stick and can only walk around 100 yards.

He believes the attempt by mining union Nacods to win compensation for knee injuries is an "excellent idea".

But he insisted: "We don't want to wait as long for this compensation - a lot of us are 80 and over now."

A spokesman for the Department of Trade and Industry said they stood by the original offer of chest disease compensation to Mr Edwards and were waiting to hear from his solicitors.

Solicitors Thompsons in Cardiff said they were awaiting the results of Mr Edwards' new medical tests.