A ROYAL Navy veteran said “lumps” developed on his arms five years after he was involved in two nuclear tests in the Pacific – and he was diagnosed with cancer 45 years later.

Retired railwayman Archie Hart, 74, of Warrington, said he was involved in two tests off Australia in his late teens.

He said that in his 20s “non-cancerous tumours” emerged on his arms, and by his 60s he had bowel cancer.

Mr Hart, one of more than 1,000 veterans fighting for compensation through the Supreme Court, said: “I was on a ship off the north-west coast of Australia.

“I was 18 when they did the first test and 19 when they did the second. This isn’t a legal argument to me. I was there – on a ship that sailed through an atomic cloud. I didn’t actually see the blast but I saw the mushroom cloud rise.”

He added: “ The information we were given was that there was ’nothing to worry about’.

“They sprayed water all over the ship and we were given ’anti-flash gear’.”

Mr Hart, who was at yesterday’s Supreme Court hearing, spoke to reporters outside court, telling them: “I’m not the worst case. There were men who are dead now who developed leukaemia in their 30s.

“It’s for them and their families we’re really fighting. People have really had a bad deal.”