🔗 Share this article

A concerned parent and Andy Hinde received heartbreaking information in 2018 when their toddler their child was diagnosed with a rare type of blood cancer.

An extended period of demanding therapies ensued, involving chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and immunotherapy before a stem cell transplant. Fraser, at three years old, made a “miraculous recovery” from the surgery, with physicians declaring the illness in regression.

During this period that Gaffney, aged thirty-six, began looking for answers. She constantly recalled observations made by medical professionals at the time of her son’s diagnosis. “It keeps us up at night wondering how Fraser got his cancer,” a doctor had told her.

“We're constantly wondering wondering how he got his illness,” a specialist had informed her.

Past Events

The improper handling of millions of tonnes of hazardous substances after the cessation of Europe’s largest steelworks in the town in 1979 had “widely acknowledged,” said Gaffney. A legal proceeding associated the council’s negligent clean-up of the site to a cluster of birth defects in community youth during the previous decades.

Over time, Alison started to connect the circumstances to her own. “[His illness] is not inherited,” she stated. “So what are the reasons? … It must be down to the community. All these kids [with] the disease.

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

Grassroots Movement

Gaffney and Hinde started to contact additional households in Corby with similar stories – including some of Alison's past schoolmates at their former educational institution – and the collective began gathering comprehensive documentation on those involved. They now head a movement representing about 130 families with cases of youth disease starting from 1988.

The organization has been calling on the local authority to research any relationships between instances of childhood cancer in the town and the closure of the plant. At the end of this month, public health officials are set to publish their evaluation of whether the area has had a elevated incidence of cases of childhood cancer for its inhabitants of 70,000.

“What we seek is to attempt to safeguard future people so they can avoid the pain that we've experienced,” said Alison.

Historical Context

The decision in the legal case accepted that, between the 1980s and 1990s, millions of tonnes of contaminated materials from the steel plant were moved “regularly” from the south of Corby to Deene Quarry in the north – with “large quantities” of hazardous materials carried and dumped on local thoroughfares and “considerable amounts” of particulate matter created by the reclamation.

Nevertheless, it also cited findings from the regulatory body in 1997 that identified accumulations of hazardous waste that had been left at Deene Quarry were later removed in “significant amounts”.

Additional Issues

The campaign leader maintains contaminated materials was not only dumped at the Deene Quarry site but in different locations of the community. Recently, she welcomed a “major step forward” after North Northamptonshire council said it would analyze soil that could be contaminated and investigate where toxic waste was dumped.

Alison said local officials admitted in the conference that they did not know where the locations of toxic materials could be. “They explained: ‘We're uncertain where these areas are. Documentation is missing, there's no data available.’”

Public Endorsement

The government declaration was also supported by another parent, a educational worker at a elementary institution, whose nine-year-old daughter, the child, was found to have blood cancer in June this year.

“I was forced to trim my young child's head because her hair was shedding from the medications she had to administer to destroy her cancer. So actually it’s in everyone's benefit, it’s in her daughter's welfare [for the council] to disclose that information,” she said.

“There are so many residents 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.”

Personal Stories

A community member, aged thirty-one, who works in sales and now has moved away, said families deserved “absolute honesty and openness” from the local authority.

Lyons’s young sibling, Eve, passed away on in recent years after being diagnosed with a specific illness at the young age. Eve, who fundraised for health organizations, was “one of the most lovable, funniest and kindest” individuals, Lyons said.

Her mother remembers the consequence of the shutdown of the manufacturing site on the town, the woman explained. “She said you were unable to place your fingers in before you because [of] the red ash.”

“This has been going on since around about early childhood. It’s an excessive amount of time and it is carelessness toward the people of Corby.”

Historical Connections

Another family member, a local resident, was among numerous households participating in the legal case against the then Corby council after her infant was born with a foot condition. Her partner, the man, was a member of the lorry drivers participating in transporting materials from the manufacturing facility. Their experience was shown in a media production, and demonstrated the woman removing the particles from her husband’s jeans.

Gaffney said the campaign group has been contacted by whistleblowers who were involved in the placement of substances in the area.