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Alison Gaffney and Andy Hinde received heartbreaking information in 2018 when their toddler Fraser was found to have a rare type of childhood cancer.

24 months of intensive medical care ensued, involving chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and immune system treatments before a bone marrow procedure. The young boy, then aged three, made a remarkable improvement from the operation, with physicians declaring the disease in remission.

During this period that Alison, 36, began looking for explanations. She could not stop thinking about observations made by medical professionals at the time of her child's illness. “It keeps us up at night wondering how our son got his disease,” a doctor had shared with her.

“It keeps us up at night wondering how Fraser got his cancer,” a specialist had told her.

Past Events

The botched disposal of enormous amounts of hazardous substances after the shutdown of the town's primary employer in the town in 1979 had “always been a known thing,” said Gaffney. A 2009 civil case connected the local authority's mismanagement of the site to a series of developmental issues in community youth during the previous decades.

Increasingly, Alison started to connect the case to her own. “[His illness] is not hereditary,” she said. “What could cause this? … It has to be down to the town. All these kids [with] illness.

“Each person here knows someone who’s got a minor [with] cancer. That's unusual.”

Community Action

The parents started to reach out to more parents in the town with comparable experiences – among them some of the mother's former classmates at their former educational institution – and the organization began compiling detailed records on those impacted. They now lead a campaign representing about numerous households with instances of pediatric illness dating back to 1988.

The organization has been urging the town council to examine any links between instances of pediatric illness in the town and the shutdown of the plant. In the coming weeks, medical experts are preparing to share their analysis of whether the area has had a unusually high rate of occurrences of youth disease for its population of 70,000.

“What we seek is to work to secure subsequent residents so they can avoid the suffering that we've endured,” said Alison.

Historical Context

The decision in the 2009 civil claim accepted that, between 1983 and 1997, enormous amounts of toxic substances from the industrial facility were moved “typically” from the one area to a specific location in the north – with “substantial volumes” of toxic waste carried and dumped on community streets and “large volumes” of airborne particles produced by the cleanup.

However, it also mentioned documents from the environmental authorities in 1997 that found accumulations of hazardous waste that had been abandoned at the site were later taken away in “large quantities”.

Expanding Concerns

The campaign leader suspects waste was not merely deposited at the Deene Quarry site but in other parts of the community. Lately, she approved a “major step forward” after municipal government said it would analyze ground that could be polluted and investigate where contaminated substances was dumped.

The mother said government representatives confirmed in the conference that they lacked information where the sites of toxic materials could be. “They explained: ‘We don’t know where these sites are. There are no records, we have nothing on it.’”

Public Endorsement

The government declaration was also supported by a community member, a pastoral lead at a local school, whose young child, Bella, was diagnosed with a hematologic malignancy in June this year.

“I needed to cut my little girl's scalp because her locks was coming out from the drugs she had to use to destroy her illness. So actually it’s in our interest, it’s in the child's wellbeing [for the council] to reveal that knowledge,” she stated.

“Countless individuals in the town that have been found to have youth disease and I believe it’s too much to ignore – it demands examination. This isn't typical.”

Individual Accounts

Another resident, in her early thirties, who has a professional career and now lives in London, said households merited “full transparency and clarity” from the local authority.

Her 11-year-old sister, the girl, died on 24 June 2017 after being found to have a uncommon malignancy at the young age. Her sister, who raised awareness for cancer charities, was “one of the most charming, humorous and kindest” people, Lyons stated.

Her parent remembers the consequence of the shutdown of the manufacturing site on the community, Lyons explained. “She mentioned you couldn’t put your palm in before you because [of] the colored dust.”

“This has been going on since I’ve probably been about early childhood. It's too long and it is irresponsibility toward the people of Corby.”

Historical Connections

A relative, Maggie Mahon, was one of several parents connected to the court proceeding against the former government after her baby was born with clubfoot. Her spouse, her partner, was among the truck operators involved in handling substances from the steelworks. Their experience was shown in a recent series, and showed the woman cleaning the particles from her partner's pants.

Alison said the collective has been approached by individuals with information who were participating in the dumping of substances in the community.