A former factory worker has been awarded almost £6,000 in damages after her job at a Ryedale factory caused her "excruciating" wrist pain.

Lesley Ann Sykes, 43, of Fulford, York, worked at Malton Bacon Factory between October 1998 and September 1999, York County Court heard. Three months after starting work on the factory's production line, Mrs Sykes said she started to feel acute pain in her wrist and the back of her hand. Mrs Sykes visited her GP, Jonathan Tams, in April, who diagnosed tenosynovitis, an inflammation of the tendons. Stephen Norris, a consultant at Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, said he believed the tenosynovitis was caused by Mrs Sykes' job, which involved handling meat joints of up to 2kg each.

But James Murphy, for Malton Bacon Factory, said the pain was not caused by working at the factory.

Paul Stewart, a consultant at the Freeman Hospital, in Newcastle, said that Mrs Sykes suffered from an over-flexibility of the joints, which would have been present from birth. But Judge Gavin Barr-Young said he found it more likely that Mrs Sykes had suffered from tenosynovitis, brought on by her work at the factory. Mrs Sykes was awarded £5,750 in damages.

Updated: 11:03 Saturday, April 05, 2003