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A concerned parent and her partner received devastating information in 2018 when their 17-month-old Fraser was confirmed to have a uncommon form of leukaemia.

Two years of gruelling treatment came next, involving cancer medications, radiotherapy, and immune system treatments before a stem cell transplant. Fraser, at three years old, made a remarkable improvement from the operation, with medical staff confirming the illness in recovery.

During this period that the mother, in her mid-thirties, began investigating causes. She constantly recalled comments made by medical professionals at the time of her child's illness. “We're tormented wondering how our son got his disease,” a consultant had informed her.

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

Historical Context

The improper handling of millions of tonnes of toxic materials after the closure of a major industrial facility in Corby in 1979 had “always been a known thing,” said the mother. A legal proceeding connected the council’s negligent clean-up of the site to a cluster of developmental issues in local children during the twentieth century.

Over time, the concerned mother started to connect the case to her own. “[The disease] is not genetic,” she said. “So what are the reasons? … It must be down to the community. So many children [with] cancer.

“Each person here knows somebody who’s got a youngster [with] illness. That’s not normal.”

Collective Efforts

Gaffney and Hinde started to contact more parents in their community with parallel situations – including some of Alison's ex-school friends at a local school – and the collective began assembling thorough information on those involved. They now spearhead a initiative advocating for about many parents with situations of pediatric illness going back to 1988.

The organization has been pressuring the municipal government to examine any links between occurrences of childhood cancer in this community and the shutdown of the plant. In the coming weeks, health authorities are set to publish their study of whether the town has had a unusually high rate of cases of childhood cancer for its inhabitants of 70,000.

“All we want is to work to secure coming generations so they won't experience the hardship that we’ve been through,” said the mother.

Previous Cases

The decision in the 2009 civil claim acknowledged that, between 1983 and 1997, enormous amounts of hazardous waste from the industrial facility were moved “regularly” from the one area to Deene Quarry in the northern section – with “significant amounts” of hazardous materials transported and deposited on local thoroughfares and “considerable amounts” of dust generated by the cleanup.

However, it also cited documents from the environmental authorities in 1997 that identified accumulations of contaminated material that had been left at Deene Quarry were later extracted in “large quantities”.

Expanding Concerns

Gaffney believes waste was not merely deposited at the Deene Quarry site but in different locations of the town. Lately, she welcomed a “important advancement” after North Northamptonshire council said it would analyze land that could be tainted and investigate where hazardous materials was deposited.

Alison said government representatives confirmed in the conference that they lacked information where the locations of hazardous substances could be. “They explained: ‘We lack information where these areas are. We have no documentation, we have nothing on it.’”

Local Backing

The council’s announcement was also embraced by Tonia Shalgosky, a educational worker at a primary school, whose young child, Bella, was confirmed to have leukaemia in June this year.

“I was forced to trim my nine-year-old daughter's hair because her hair was shedding from the medications she had to take to kill her disease. Therefore it’s in our interest, it’s in the child's wellbeing [for the council] to share that knowledge,” she said.

“There are so many people in the town that have been diagnosed with childhood cancer and I just feel it’s impossible to overlook – it requires investigation. This is unusual.”

Family Experiences

Another resident, 31, who is employed in business and now lives in London, said families deserved “full transparency and clarity” from the local authority.

Lyons’s young sibling, the girl, died on in recent years after being found to have a specific illness at the age of nine. The girl, who raised awareness for medical research, was “exceptionally adorable, funniest and compassionate” people, she recalled.

Her parent remembers the effect of the closure of the steel plant on the community, she stated. “She mentioned you could not position your hand in front of your face because [of] the colored dust.”

“This has been going on since I was approximately about three years old. It's too long and it is carelessness toward the local residents.”

Previous Involvement

Lyons’s cousin, a community member, was part of multiple households participating in the 2009 claim against the former government after her baby was diagnosed with a congenital issue. Her spouse, Derek, was one of the vehicle operators participating in removing waste from the manufacturing facility. Their experience was portrayed in a recent series, and showed the mother beating the dust from her partner's pants.

Gaffney said the campaign group has been reached out to by individuals with information who were involved in the dumping of waste in the town.