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Alison Gaffney and her partner faced life-altering information in 2018 when their toddler their baby was found to have a unusual variant of leukaemia.

Two years of gruelling treatment ensued, involving cancer medications, radiotherapy, and immune system treatments before a stem cell transplant. The young boy, then aged three, made a remarkable improvement from the surgery, with doctors declaring the disease in remission.

During this period that Alison, in her mid-thirties, began investigating answers. She could not stop thinking about comments made by hospital staff at the time of her son’s diagnosis. “We're tormented wondering how our son got his disease,” a doctor had told her.

“We can't sleep wondering how he got his cancer,” a doctor had told her.

Past Events

The improper handling of enormous amounts of hazardous substances after the shutdown of a major industrial facility in this community in 1979 had “always been a known thing,” said the mother. A court ruling associated the local authority's mismanagement of the site to a series of congenital abnormalities in community youth during the previous decades.

Gradually, Gaffney started to connect the situation to her own. “[His illness] is not hereditary,” she said. “So what are the reasons? … It must be down to the town. Numerous young people [with] cancer.

“Each person here knows somebody who’s got a youngster [with] illness. This isn't typical.”

Community Action

Alison and Andy started to reach out to more parents in Corby with similar stories – among them some of the mother's ex-school friends at a local school – and the organization began assembling detailed records on those involved. They now head a movement representing about many parents with instances of youth disease dating back to 1988.

The organization has been urging the municipal government to investigate any links between cases of childhood cancer in Corby and the shutdown of the industrial site. At the end of this month, public health officials are set to publish their analysis of whether the community has had a disproportionate number of cases of youth disease for its population of the local community.

“All we want is to try and protect subsequent residents so they can avoid the suffering that we've endured,” said the mother.

Previous Cases

The decision in the court proceeding acknowledged that, between 1983 and 1997, vast quantities of toxic substances from the steel plant were transported “typically” from the south of Corby to Deene Quarry in the northern section – with “significant amounts” of hazardous materials moved and dropped on public roads and “considerable amounts” of dust produced by the cleanup.

Nevertheless, it also referenced findings from the Environment Agency in 1997 that found collections of contaminated material that had been left at the site were later taken away in “large quantities”.

Additional Issues

Alison maintains waste was not exclusively placed at the main disposal area but in other parts of the town. Recently, she applauded a “major step forward” after local authorities said it would examine land that could be polluted and study where hazardous materials was dumped.

The mother said local officials admitted in the meeting that they did not know where the sites of contaminated waste could be. “They stated: ‘We don’t know where these sites are. Documentation is missing, we possess no information.’”

Community Support

The official statement was also embraced by another parent, a pastoral lead at a elementary institution, whose school-aged girl, Bella, was confirmed to have a hematologic malignancy in June this year.

“I was forced to trim my little girl's hair because her hair was coming out from the drugs she had to take to eliminate her disease. So actually it’s in our interest, it’s in Bella’s interest [for the council] to share that knowledge,” she stated.

“There are so many individuals in the town that have been diagnosed with childhood cancer and I just feel it’s impossible to overlook – it requires investigation. This isn't typical.”

Family Experiences

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

Lyons’s family member, her sister, passed away on in recent years after being found to have a specific illness at the young age. Eve, who raised awareness for medical research, was “exceptionally lovable, humorous and kindest” persons, Lyons stated.

Her family member remembers the impact of the shutdown of the industrial facility on the area, the woman said. “She recalled you couldn’t put your palm in front of your face because [of] the colored dust.”

“This situation has persisted since around about my youth. It’s an excessive amount of time and it is carelessness toward the local residents.”

Past Associations

Another family member, Maggie Mahon, was part of multiple families involved in the 2009 claim against the then Corby council after her infant was had clubfoot. Her partner, Derek, was one of the vehicle operators involved in removing waste from the industrial site. Their situation was portrayed in a media production, and showed the woman cleaning the debris from her partner's pants.

Alison said the collective has been approached by whistleblowers who were involved in the dumping of substances in the community.