🔗 Share this article

Alison Gaffney and Andy Hinde faced heartbreaking diagnosis in 2018 when their young son Fraser was diagnosed with a unusual variant of leukaemia.

24 months of demanding therapies followed, involving chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immune system treatments before a cellular therapy. The young boy, by age three, made a extraordinary turnaround from the operation, with medical staff announcing the illness in remission.

It was at this point that Gaffney, in her mid-thirties, began looking for answers. She constantly recalled remarks made by hospital staff at the time of her child's illness. “It keeps us up at night wondering how our son got his cancer,” a consultant had shared with her.

“We can't sleep wondering how he got his illness,” a consultant had told her.

Historical Context

The botched disposal of vast quantities of hazardous substances after the shutdown of Europe’s largest steelworks in this community in 1979 had “always been a known thing,” said Alison. A court ruling associated the improper remediation efforts of the site to a cluster of birth defects in community youth during the previous decades.

Gradually, the concerned mother started to link the case to her own. “[Fraser’s cancer] is not genetic,” she explained. “So what are the reasons? … It’s got to be down to the town. So many children [with] the disease.

“Everybody in this town is acquainted with a person who’s got a minor [with] cancer. That’s not normal.”

Collective Efforts

The parents started to contact more parents in their community with parallel situations – featuring some of the mother's past schoolmates at a local school – and the collective began compiling comprehensive documentation on those affected. They now spearhead a initiative representing about many parents with situations of childhood cancer starting from 1988.

The collective has been urging the local authority to investigate any relationships between cases of childhood cancer in Corby and the decommissioning of the industrial site. In the coming weeks, health authorities are set to publish their analysis of whether the community has had a disproportionate number of cases of childhood cancer for its residents of seventy thousand.

“Our only goal is to try and protect future people so they can avoid the suffering that we've experienced,” said Alison.

Legal Precedents

The judgment in the court proceeding accepted that, between the 1980s and 1990s, vast quantities of toxic substances from the steel plant were moved “typically” from the south of Corby to a specific location in the northern section – with “significant amounts” of hazardous materials transported and dropped on local thoroughfares and “large volumes” of airborne particles produced by the cleanup.

However, it also referenced reports from the environmental authorities in 1997 that discovered stockpiles of toxic substances that had been deposited at Deene Quarry were later extracted in “significant amounts”.

Expanding Concerns

Gaffney suspects waste was not only dumped at the main disposal area but in different locations of the community. Recently, she applauded a “significant progress” after municipal government said it would examine soil that could be contaminated and study where contaminated substances was deposited.

Alison said government representatives admitted in the discussion that they were unaware where the areas of hazardous substances could be. “They explained: ‘We're uncertain where these areas are. We have no documentation, we have nothing on it.’”

Public Endorsement

The council’s announcement was also embraced by Tonia Shalgosky, a educational worker at a elementary institution, whose nine-year-old daughter, her daughter, was found to have leukaemia in June this year.

“I was forced to trim my nine-year-old daughter's hair because her tresses was coming out from the medications she had to take to eliminate her illness. So actually it’s in everyone's benefit, it’s in her daughter's welfare [for the council] to share that data,” she explained.

“Numerous residents in the area that have been diagnosed with childhood cancer and I just feel it’s too much to ignore – it needs looking at. This isn't typical.”

Family Experiences

Another resident, aged thirty-one, who has a professional career and now resides elsewhere, said households merited “complete and utter truth and openness” from the local authority.

The woman's young sibling, the girl, passed away on 24 June 2017 after being confirmed to have a rare bone cancer at the childhood. Eve, who fundraised for cancer charities, was “one of the most adorable, humorous and kindest” persons, she recalled.

Her family member recalls the effect of the cessation of the manufacturing site on the community, the woman explained. “She mentioned you couldn’t put your palm in front of your face because [of] the red ash.”

“This has been going on since I’ve probably been about my youth. It’s an excessive amount of time and it is carelessness toward the community members.”

Past Associations

Lyons’s cousin, a local resident, was among numerous parents involved in the court proceeding against the then Corby council after her infant was diagnosed with clubfoot. Her spouse, her partner, was a member of the truck operators responsible for removing waste from the industrial site. Their experience was portrayed in a media production, and showed the mother beating the debris from her husband’s jeans.

Gaffney said the collective has been contacted by informants who were participating in the placement of substances in the community.