🔗 Share this article

A concerned parent and Fraser's father received life-altering diagnosis in 2018 when their 17-month-old Fraser was confirmed to have a uncommon form of blood cancer.

24 months of gruelling treatment came next, including drug treatments, radiation therapy, and biological therapies before a stem cell transplant. Fraser, at three years old, made a remarkable improvement from the operation, with medical staff declaring the illness in recovery.

During this period that Alison, in her mid-thirties, began looking for causes. She constantly recalled remarks made by hospital staff at the time of her child's illness. “We lose sleep wondering how Fraser got his illness,” a specialist had informed her.

“We can't sleep wondering how our son got his cancer,” a specialist had informed her.

Background Information

The negligent management 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 Gaffney. A legal proceeding linked the local authority's mismanagement of the site to a string of developmental issues in town residents during the previous decades.

Increasingly, the concerned mother started to link the situation to her own. “[Fraser’s cancer] is not inherited,” she stated. “So what are the reasons? … It’s got to be down to the town. Numerous young people [with] illness.

“Everybody in this town knows somebody who’s got a minor [with] cancer. This isn't typical.”

Community Action

The parents started to reach out to more parents in the town with parallel situations – featuring some of Gaffney’s past schoolmates at their former educational institution – and the collective began assembling thorough information on those involved. They now head a campaign representing about numerous households with cases of pediatric illness dating back to 1988.

The organization has been calling on the local authority to investigate any connections between instances of pediatric illness in the town and the decommissioning of the industrial site. In the coming weeks, public health officials are set to publish their analysis of whether the community has had a unusually high rate of cases of childhood cancer for its residents of seventy thousand.

“All we want is to try and protect coming generations so they won't experience the suffering that we've endured,” said Gaffney.

Legal Precedents

The judgment in the legal case accepted that, between a fourteen-year period, millions of tonnes of hazardous waste from the manufacturing site were relocated “almost invariably” from the southern part of town to a specific location in the opposite end – with “substantial volumes” of toxic waste moved and dropped on public roads and “substantial quantities” of particulate matter created by the cleanup.

Nevertheless, it also mentioned reports from the regulatory body in 1997 that discovered stockpiles of contaminated material that had been abandoned at this location were later removed in “significant amounts”.

Growing Suspicions

The campaign leader believes contaminated materials was not only dumped at the main disposal area but in additional areas of the town. Recently, she approved a “major step forward” after municipal government said it would analyze ground that could be contaminated and research where contaminated substances was deposited.

Gaffney said government representatives acknowledged in the meeting that they did not know where the areas of contaminated waste could be. “They explained: ‘We don’t know where these locations are. Documentation is missing, we have nothing on it.’”

Public Endorsement

The government declaration was also supported by a community member, a school staff member at a local school, whose nine-year-old daughter, the child, was diagnosed with blood cancer in recent months.

“I had to shave my nine-year-old daughter's head because her locks was falling out from the medications she had to use to kill her cancer. So actually it’s in our interest, it’s in the child's wellbeing [for the council] to share that knowledge,” she explained.

“Numerous people in the area that have been found to have childhood cancer and I just feel it’s impossible to overlook – it needs looking at. This is unusual.”

Family Experiences

A community member, in her early thirties, who works in sales and now has moved away, said parents earned “full transparency and transparency” from the government.

Her family member, the girl, succumbed on in recent years after being confirmed to have a rare bone cancer at the childhood. Her sister, who raised awareness for medical research, was “exceptionally lovable, humorous and compassionate” persons, she stated.

Her family member recalls the consequence of the shutdown of the steel plant on the community, the woman explained. “She mentioned you couldn’t put your fingers in before you because [of] the particulate matter.”

“These issues have continued since I’ve probably been about three years old. It's too long and it is irresponsibility toward the people of Corby.”

Past Associations

Lyons’s cousin, Maggie Mahon, was part of multiple families participating in the legal case against the previous administration after her infant was diagnosed with clubfoot. Her husband, Derek, was among the vehicle operators involved in transporting materials from the steelworks. Their experience was shown in a media production, and showed Maggie beating the particles from her partner's pants.

The campaign leader said the campaign group has been reached out to by individuals with information who were involved in the placement of substances in the town.