One year later, she is $10,000 in debt with three mortgages and reeling as her bid for compensation from WorkCover Queensland has been knocked back again.

The Queensland Industrial Relations Commission decision, published last month, was the latest blow in what the 58-year-old Queenslander described as the worst two years of her life.

Her lawyer argued there was an inconsistency in the law but the commission disagreed, upholding an earlier finding that a $100,000 claim for compensation in New Zealand precluded her from claiming in Queensland.

William "Kev" Cameron's death on January 4 last year, just as his wife thought she saw a ray of hope, was shocking, devastating and fast.

She took a holiday to Hawaii over Christmas last year while still expecting compensation, which hurt her financially, but said she couldn't bear being home.

Her husband finished chemotherapy for mesothelioma in August 2015 and was feeling good until one day the usually voracious eater couldn't manage more than two bites of his lunch.

A tumour next to his oesophagus had grown from 12 millimetres to 50 in just two months.

Desperate for treatment, he accepted radiography treatment as the couple sought out respected oncologist and mesothelioma specialist Dr Keith Horwood.

They flew from Innisfail, where the 74-year-old was building their home, to Brisbane to spend Christmas with friends in Paddington.

A few days before, they met with Dr Horwood, who proposed a promising new treatment but noted Mr Cameron was too weak from the radiotherapy and would have to return later, Mrs May said.

Things were looking promising. Then at Christmas lunch, "Kev" couldn't eat or drink.

By Boxing Day he had "taken a turn for the worse" and his wife rushed him to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital.

The cancer had spread to the big man's liver and brain and he was moved to palliative care to die.

"It was so quick, from Christmas Day when we had all hopes of having the immunotherapy treatment and the tumour shrinking back and everything to dead in a week," she said.

Mrs May was herself diagnosed with endometrial cancer in March last year, sending her to hospital, then back to family in the UK for three weeks before eventually "falling in a heap" with severe depression.

A remote area nurse working in the Northern Territory while her husband tried to finish their Innisfail home, she had been earning good money.

At that point, the house would be finished soon and repayments on a loan and three mortgages on two investment properties were progressing as planned.

But battling depression and recovering from cancer without her rock, the 58-year-old said she was unable to work.

"I was down to my last $120 last week. I took all the money out of my savings account that I put aside for my grandson," she said, adding that she was returning to work in the Northern Territory despite not being ready.

Mr Cameron started work as a carpenter in New Zealand in 1957 and was exposed to asbestos at work for a total of 15 years between 1960 and 1978.

After moving to Queensland, he was exposed to the deadly fibres for about another three years.

Before his death, Mr Cameron applied for compensation under New Zealand law and was paid out $NZD133,802.

"Kev", thinking he was going to make a full recovery, bought a beautiful old Triumph Bonneville, which he rode maybe half a dozen times before his death, and poured money into the house.

Mrs May said her legal advice at the time was that the Kiwi compensation would be easier to claim but wouldn't affect her right to claim in Queensland.

According to the Workers' Compensation Regulator, confirmed by the QIRC in January, that was wrong and the New Zealand claim cancelled his entitlement to any claim in Queensland.

Michael Grant-Taylor QC, acting for Mrs May, argued that one section of the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act seemed to only address compensation from another state of Australia, and clashed with another section.

"The act specifically allows a worker to be compensated under the act when they have already been compensated for the same condition," he argued.

"There cannot be any other logical analysis of how s 128C applies: it clearly does not work with s 118 and the statutory declaration required under s 118."

But the Workers' Compensation Regulator's counsel submitted the intention of that part of the act was to avoid "double dipping" generally and there was no inconsistency.

The QIRC agreed but also called for the Queensland Parliament to clarify the act in certain places.

"Although I accept that in the circumstances of this case Mr Cameron's estate is barred from claiming what amounts to a significant sum, an election was made to claim in New Zealand where a smaller, but nevertheless substantial, award was made."

Turner Freeman associate Ciaran Ehrich said he was still considering whether to appeal but Mrs May appeared to have given up on challenging further.

"The problems with these claims is that it often crosses borders so it's a very complex field to look at," Mr Ehrich said.