🔗 Share this article

Alison Gaffney and Fraser's father received life-altering information in 2018 when their 17-month-old Fraser was confirmed to have a unusual variant of leukaemia.

24 months of demanding therapies ensued, involving drug treatments, radiotherapy, and biological therapies before a bone marrow procedure. Fraser, at three years old, made a remarkable improvement from the procedure, with doctors confirming the illness in remission.

During this period that Gaffney, 36, began seeking causes. She constantly recalled observations made by hospital staff at the time of her son’s diagnosis. “It keeps us up at night wondering how Fraser got his illness,” a consultant had shared with her.

“We're constantly wondering wondering how our son got his cancer,” a doctor had told her.

Historical Context

The improper handling of vast quantities of hazardous substances after the shutdown of Europe’s largest steelworks in the town in 1979 had “widely acknowledged,” said Alison. A 2009 civil case linked the improper remediation efforts of the site to a string of congenital abnormalities in local children during the twentieth century.

Increasingly, Gaffney started to link the situation to her own. “[The disease] is not hereditary,” she stated. “What could cause this? … It has to be down to the town. So many children [with] illness.

“Each person here knows somebody who’s got a child [with] cancer. That's unusual.”

Grassroots Movement

Alison and Andy started to connect with more parents in the town with similar stories – featuring some of Alison's ex-school friends at a local school – and the collective began compiling detailed records on those involved. They now lead a initiative advocating for about many parents with cases of pediatric illness starting from 1988.

The group has been urging the municipal government to examine any connections between occurrences of pediatric illness in this community and the decommissioning of the facility. Soon, 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 inhabitants of the local community.

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

Historical Context

The judgment in the 2009 civil claim acknowledged that, between a fourteen-year period, enormous amounts of contaminated materials from the industrial facility were relocated “typically” from the one area to a specific location in the northern section – with “substantial volumes” of hazardous materials moved and deposited on community streets and “substantial quantities” of particulate matter produced by the reclamation.

Nonetheless, it also cited findings from the regulatory body in 1997 that found accumulations of contaminated material that had been left at the site were later removed in “large quantities”.

Expanding Concerns

Gaffney maintains contaminated materials was not merely deposited at the primary location but in additional areas of the municipality. Lately, she approved a “major step forward” after municipal government said it would analyze soil that could be polluted and research where hazardous materials was dumped.

Alison said council staff admitted in the meeting that they lacked information where the locations of toxic materials could be. “They explained: ‘We don’t know where these areas are. There are no records, there's no data available.’”

Community Support

The council’s announcement was also embraced by Tonia Shalgosky, a educational worker at a elementary institution, whose young child, Bella, was diagnosed with blood cancer in June this year.

“I was forced to trim my young child's hair because her tresses was falling out from the drugs she had to take to destroy her disease. Consequently it’s in the community's concern, it’s in the child's wellbeing [for the council] to reveal that data,” she stated.

“Numerous people in the area that have been found to have youth disease and I believe it’s impossible to overlook – it requires investigation. This isn't typical.”

Personal Stories

Meg Lyons, in her early thirties, who has a professional career and now has moved away, said parents merited “complete and utter truth and openness” from the local authority.

Her family member, Eve, died on a specific date after being found to have a specific illness at the young age. The girl, who collected money for health organizations, was “one of the most charming, entertaining and compassionate” individuals, she recalled.

Her parent recalls the consequence of the closure of the industrial facility on the town, the woman stated. “She recalled you were unable to place your palm in front of your face because [of] the red ash.”

“These issues have continued since around about my youth. It’s an excessive amount of time and it is carelessness toward the people of Corby.”

Previous Involvement

A relative, a local resident, was one of several families participating in the legal case against the former government after her baby was born with a foot condition. Her partner, her partner, was among the vehicle operators participating in handling substances from the industrial site. Their experience was shown in a media production, and showed Maggie cleaning the debris from her partner's pants.

Gaffney said the campaign group has been approached by individuals with information who were involved in the dumping of waste in the community.