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Alison Gaffney and Andy Hinde were given devastating diagnosis in 2018 when their 17-month-old Fraser was diagnosed with a rare type of childhood cancer.

24 months of intensive medical care ensued, involving drug treatments, radiotherapy, and biological therapies before a bone marrow procedure. Fraser, then aged three, made a remarkable improvement from the operation, with doctors announcing the illness in remission.

It was at this point that Alison, in her mid-thirties, began investigating answers. She constantly recalled observations made by hospital staff at the time of her Fraser's condition. “It keeps us up at night wondering how our son got his illness,” a consultant had informed her.

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

Historical Context

The botched disposal of enormous amounts of contaminated waste after the closure of the town's primary employer in the town in 1979 had “always been a known thing,” said Gaffney. A legal proceeding associated the council’s negligent clean-up of the site to a series of congenital abnormalities in town residents during the 1980s and 1990s.

Increasingly, Alison 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] illness.

“Each person here is acquainted with a person who’s got a child [with] illness. That’s not normal.”

Community Action

Alison and Andy started to contact more parents in the town with similar stories – including some of the mother's past schoolmates at their former educational institution – and the group began compiling thorough information on those impacted. They now lead a initiative advocating for about many parents with situations of pediatric illness going back to 1988.

The collective has been calling on the local authority to examine any relationships between occurrences of pediatric illness in the town and the shutdown of the plant. Soon, medical experts are preparing to share their evaluation of whether the area has had a elevated incidence of occurrences of pediatric illness for its population of 70,000.

“Our only goal is to attempt to safeguard subsequent residents so they won't experience the suffering that we've experienced,” said Gaffney.

Historical Context

The ruling in the 2009 civil claim recognized that, between the 1980s and 1990s, enormous amounts of contaminated materials from the manufacturing site were relocated “almost invariably” from the southern part of town to a specific location in the north – with “large quantities” of contaminated substances moved and dumped on public roads and “substantial quantities” of dust generated by the remediation.

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

Expanding Concerns

Gaffney believes contaminated materials was not only dumped at the Deene Quarry site but in different locations of the community. In recent developments, she welcomed a “significant progress” after local authorities said it would test land that could be contaminated and investigate where toxic waste was deposited.

The mother said local officials admitted in the meeting that they did not know where the areas of contaminated waste could be. “They stated: ‘We're uncertain where these areas are. Documentation is missing, there's no data available.’”

Public Endorsement

The council’s announcement was also supported by Tonia Shalgosky, a educational worker at a primary school, whose young child, the child, was found to have a hematologic malignancy in recent months.

“I was forced to trim my young child's head because her hair was shedding from the treatments she had to take to destroy her cancer. Consequently it’s in the community's concern, it’s in the child's wellbeing [for the council] to disclose that information,” she explained.

“Numerous individuals in the area that have been diagnosed with pediatric illness and I just feel it’s cannot be dismissed – it demands examination. This can’t be normal.”

Personal Stories

Another resident, in her early thirties, who works in sales and now has moved away, said parents merited “absolute honesty and transparency” from the government.

Lyons’s young sibling, Eve, died on in recent years after being diagnosed with a rare bone cancer at the young age. The girl, who collected money for cancer charities, was “exceptionally lovable, funniest and compassionate” persons, the sister recalled.

Her mother remembers the consequence of the cessation of the manufacturing site on the area, Lyons said. “She recalled you were unable to place your hand in front of your face because [of] the particulate matter.”

“This has been going on since I’ve probably been about three years old. It's too long and it is carelessness toward the people of Corby.”

Historical Connections

A relative, Maggie Mahon, was one of several families participating in the 2009 claim against the former government after her infant was diagnosed with a congenital issue. Her partner, her partner, was among the truck operators participating in handling substances from the manufacturing facility. Their story was portrayed in a television program, and illustrated the woman cleaning the particles from her husband’s jeans.

Alison said the organization has been reached out to by whistleblowers who were involved in the dumping of materials in the area.