🔗 Share this article

Alison Gaffney and her partner received life-altering information in 2018 when their toddler Fraser was confirmed to have a rare type of childhood cancer.

Two years of demanding therapies came next, including cancer medications, radiation therapy, and biological therapies before a cellular therapy. Their son, at three years old, made a “miraculous recovery” from the procedure, with doctors confirming the illness in recovery.

During this period that Alison, in her mid-thirties, began looking for causes. She could not stop thinking about remarks made by hospital staff at the time of her child's illness. “We lose sleep wondering how our son got his cancer,” a specialist had shared with her.

“We're constantly wondering wondering how Fraser got his disease,” a doctor had told her.

Background Information

The improper handling of enormous amounts of contaminated waste after the closure of Europe’s largest steelworks in Corby in 1979 had “long been recognized,” said the mother. A legal proceeding linked the local authority's mismanagement of the site to a series of birth defects in local children during the twentieth century.

Gradually, the concerned mother started to connect the situation to her own. “[His illness] is not hereditary,” she said. “So what are the reasons? … It’s got to be down to the community. So many children [with] cancer.

“Each person here knows somebody who’s got a youngster [with] the disease. This isn't typical.”

Community Action

Alison and Andy started to contact more parents in Corby with parallel situations – among them some of Gaffney’s ex-school friends at their former educational institution – and the group began gathering detailed records on those impacted. They now spearhead a initiative advocating for about many parents with cases of pediatric illness dating back to 1988.

The group has been urging the local authority to investigate any connections between instances of youth disease in this community and the shutdown of the plant. At the end of this month, medical experts are preparing to share their evaluation of whether the community has had a elevated incidence of occurrences of youth disease for its population of 70,000.

“What we seek is to attempt to safeguard subsequent residents so they won't experience the hardship that we've experienced,” said Gaffney.

Historical Context

The decision in the court proceeding accepted that, between a fourteen-year period, millions of tonnes of hazardous waste from the industrial facility were relocated “typically” from the south of Corby to a specific location in the north – with “significant amounts” of hazardous materials transported and dumped on community streets and “large volumes” of airborne particles created by the reclamation.

Nevertheless, it also referenced findings from the regulatory body in 1997 that found accumulations of contaminated material that had been left at this location were later taken away in “substantial volumes”.

Expanding Concerns

The campaign leader suspects waste was not exclusively placed at the main disposal area but in other parts of the community. Lately, she applauded a “significant progress” after municipal government said it would examine land that could be contaminated and research where hazardous materials was disposed of.

The mother said council staff admitted in the meeting that they did not know where the areas of toxic materials could be. “They said: ‘We lack information where these sites are. We have no documentation, we have nothing on it.’”

Local Backing

The official statement was also embraced by a community member, a school staff member at a elementary institution, whose young child, the child, was diagnosed with leukaemia in June this year.

“I was forced to trim my little girl's head because her locks was coming out from the treatments she had to administer to kill her disease. Therefore it’s in our interest, it’s in her daughter's welfare [for the council] to share that data,” she said.

“Numerous residents in the area that have been diagnosed with pediatric illness and I just feel it’s too much to ignore – it demands examination. This isn't typical.”

Individual Accounts

Meg Lyons, in her early thirties, who works in sales and now resides elsewhere, said parents deserved “complete and utter truth and openness” from the local authority.

The woman's young sibling, the girl, succumbed on a specific date after being confirmed to have a uncommon malignancy at the age of nine. The girl, who collected money for health organizations, was “among the charming, funniest and compassionate” individuals, Lyons said.

Her parent remembers the consequence of the cessation of the manufacturing site on the community, Lyons explained. “She said you were unable to place your palm in before you because [of] the colored dust.”

“This has been going on since I was approximately about three years old. It’s an excessive amount of time and it is negligence toward the people of Corby.”

Previous Involvement

Another family member, a local resident, was one of several families involved in the legal case against the then Corby council after her newborn was diagnosed with clubfoot. Her spouse, the man, was a member of the truck operators involved in transporting materials from the industrial site. Their situation was depicted in a recent series, and demonstrated the mother beating the dust from her husband’s jeans.

Alison said the organization has been approached by informants who were participating in the placement of waste in the area.