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A concerned parent and Andy Hinde were given heartbreaking diagnosis in 2018 when their young son Fraser was found to have a uncommon form of leukaemia.

An extended period of intensive medical care came next, involving cancer medications, radiotherapy, and biological therapies before a stem cell transplant. Fraser, by age three, made a remarkable improvement from the procedure, with doctors declaring the cancer in recovery.

It was at this point that the mother, in her mid-thirties, began investigating explanations. She remained troubled by observations made by hospital staff at the time of her Fraser's condition. “It keeps us up at night wondering how he got his disease,” a doctor had informed her.

“We can't sleep wondering how he got his disease,” a specialist had shared with her.

Historical Context

The botched disposal of vast quantities of contaminated waste after the shutdown of Europe’s largest steelworks in the town in 1979 had “always been a known thing,” said the mother. A legal proceeding connected the local authority's mismanagement of the site to a string of developmental issues in local children during the previous decades.

Over time, Gaffney started to link the case to her own. “[His illness] is not hereditary,” she said. “What could cause this? … It must be down to the area. Numerous young people [with] the disease.

“Every resident knows somebody who’s got a child [with] the disease. This isn't typical.”

Community Action

Gaffney and Hinde started to reach out to additional households in their community with comparable experiences – among them some of Gaffney’s past schoolmates at their former educational institution – and the collective began assembling detailed records on those involved. They now lead a initiative representing about many parents with instances of youth disease starting from 1988.

The collective has been urging the town council to examine any connections between instances of childhood cancer in Corby and the decommissioning of the industrial site. At the end of this month, medical experts are set to publish their study of whether the area has had a elevated incidence of occurrences of childhood cancer for its inhabitants of the local community.

“What we seek is to attempt to safeguard future people so they can avoid the suffering that we’ve been through,” said the mother.

Previous Cases

The decision in the 2009 civil claim recognized that, between the 1980s and 1990s, vast quantities of hazardous waste from the industrial facility were moved “regularly” from the southern part of town to Deene Quarry in the north – with “substantial volumes” of contaminated substances carried and dumped on community streets and “large volumes” of particulate matter created by the remediation.

Nevertheless, it also cited reports from the environmental authorities in 1997 that discovered stockpiles of contaminated material that had been abandoned at Deene Quarry were later extracted in “substantial volumes”.

Additional Issues

Alison believes contaminated materials was not merely deposited at the Deene Quarry site but in different locations of the municipality. Recently, she welcomed a “major step forward” after local authorities said it would examine ground that could be contaminated and study where hazardous materials was dumped.

Alison said government representatives admitted in the conference that they were unaware where the locations of contaminated waste could be. “They stated: ‘We don’t know where these locations are. We have no documentation, there's no data available.’”

Community Support

The government declaration was also embraced by another parent, a school staff member at a local school, whose school-aged girl, her daughter, was found to have a hematologic malignancy in the summer.

“I needed to cut my nine-year-old daughter's hair because her hair was coming out from the medications she had to take to destroy her illness. So actually it’s in the community's concern, it’s in the child's wellbeing [for the council] to disclose that data,” she explained.

“Countless individuals in the community that have been confirmed to have youth disease and I just feel it’s impossible to overlook – it needs looking at. This isn't typical.”

Individual Accounts

A community member, in her early thirties, who has a professional career and now has moved away, said households deserved “complete and utter truth and transparency” from the council.

Lyons’s family member, Eve, succumbed on 24 June 2017 after being found to have a specific illness at the childhood. Her sister, who raised awareness for health organizations, was “one of the most charming, entertaining and kindest” individuals, Lyons said.

Her mother recalls the effect of the closure of the manufacturing site on the area, she stated. “She said you could not position your palm in front of your face because [of] the particulate matter.”

“This has been going on since around about early childhood. This duration is unreasonable and it is irresponsibility toward the local residents.”

Previous Involvement

A relative, Maggie Mahon, was one of several households participating in the court proceeding against the then Corby council after her baby was diagnosed with a foot condition. Her partner, Derek, was one of the truck operators involved in handling substances from the steelworks. Their situation was depicted in a television program, and showed Maggie beating the dust from her partner's pants.

Alison said the organization has been reached out to by informants who were responsible for the dumping of substances in the area.