Cancer patients whose stored sperm was destroyed when a freezer broke down at a hospital are seeking compensation, their legal representative said yesterday.

The sperm of 28 patients was destroyed when one of two long-term storage tanks malfunctioned at Southmead hospital in Bristol in June.

It held sperm samples which had been given by the patients over the previous year.

It is not yet known how many of the 28 men affected have now the lost the chance to become fathers.

A firm of solicitors which represents five of the families, Foot Anstey Sargent, issued a letter of claim for compensation to North Bristol NHS Trust.

Jonathan Green, a clinical negligence solicitor at the firm, said: "We sent the letter of claim last Wednesday and I received a letter of acknowledgement this morning.

"The hospital now has three months to investigate and decide on a course of action, but we are hoping for it to be turned round more quickly than that as it has been very distressing for all concerned.

He said: "Some of these men had already been rendered infertile by their cancer treatments, so the sperm being destroyed has shut the door, so to speak, on being able to have children."

He added that the hospital had offered patients the chance to meet consultants and discuss their options.