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Alison Gaffney and Andy Hinde received life-altering diagnosis in 2018 when their young son their child was found to have a rare type of blood cancer.

Two years of intensive medical care followed, including chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and biological therapies before a cellular therapy. Fraser, then aged three, made a “miraculous recovery” from the procedure, with physicians confirming the disease in regression.

During this period that Alison, in her mid-thirties, began looking for explanations. She remained troubled by observations made by healthcare workers at the time of her Fraser's condition. “We're tormented wondering how our son got his illness,” a doctor had told her.

“We're constantly wondering wondering how Fraser got his disease,” a consultant had told her.

Background Information

The improper handling of vast quantities of hazardous substances after the closure of the town's primary employer in the town in 1979 had “long been recognized,” said Gaffney. A legal proceeding linked the local authority's mismanagement of the site to a series of congenital abnormalities in town residents during the previous decades.

Over time, Alison started to associate the situation to her own. “[His illness] is not inherited,” she explained. “What could cause this? … It must be down to the area. Numerous young people [with] illness.

“Every resident is acquainted with a person who’s got a youngster [with] illness. This isn't typical.”

Community Action

Gaffney and Hinde started to connect with more parents in Corby with parallel situations – among them some of Gaffney’s past schoolmates at Brooke Weston Academy – and the organization began gathering comprehensive documentation on those affected. They now spearhead a movement supporting about 130 families with instances of childhood cancer dating back to 1988.

The collective has been pressuring the local authority to research any links between instances of childhood cancer in the town and the decommissioning of the plant. In the coming weeks, public health officials are expected to release their evaluation of whether the town has had a disproportionate number of instances of youth disease for its population of the local community.

“All we want is to attempt to safeguard coming generations so they can avoid the hardship that we've experienced,” said Gaffney.

Historical Context

The judgment in the legal case recognized that, between a fourteen-year period, millions of tonnes of hazardous waste from the manufacturing site were transported “almost invariably” from the one area to a specific location in the opposite end – with “substantial volumes” of contaminated substances carried and deposited on local thoroughfares and “substantial quantities” of particulate matter created by the reclamation.

However, it also cited findings from the regulatory body in 1997 that identified collections of hazardous waste that had been deposited at Deene Quarry were later taken away in “significant amounts”.

Expanding Concerns

Alison maintains waste was not exclusively placed at the primary location but in other parts of the community. Recently, she welcomed a “important advancement” after local authorities said it would test land that could be polluted and research where toxic waste was deposited.

Alison said council staff admitted in the meeting that they lacked information where the areas of hazardous substances could be. “They explained: ‘We don’t know where these areas are. Documentation is missing, we have nothing on it.’”

Community Support

The official statement was also supported by Tonia Shalgosky, a educational worker at a local school, whose nine-year-old daughter, Bella, was diagnosed with blood cancer in recent months.

“I needed to cut my young child's hair because her hair was coming out from the treatments she had to take to destroy her disease. Consequently it’s in the community's concern, it’s in Bella’s interest [for the council] to reveal that information,” she stated.

“There are so many residents in the community that have been diagnosed with youth disease and I believe it’s too much to ignore – it requires investigation. This isn't typical.”

Family Experiences

A community member, in her early thirties, who has a professional career and now resides elsewhere, said households deserved “absolute honesty and clarity” from the council.

Lyons’s young sibling, her sister, succumbed on in recent years after being diagnosed with a specific illness at the age of nine. The girl, who raised awareness for medical research, was “exceptionally charming, funniest and compassionate” persons, Lyons recalled.

Her parent recollects the effect of the shutdown of the manufacturing site on the community, Lyons stated. “She said you were unable to place your fingers in ahead of you because [of] the colored dust.”

“This has been going on since around about three years old. This duration is unreasonable and it is carelessness toward the people of Corby.”

Previous Involvement

A relative, a local resident, was part of multiple parents involved in the 2009 claim against the former government after her baby was born with a congenital issue. Her partner, Derek, was a member of the vehicle operators responsible for removing waste from the steelworks. Their situation was shown in a recent series, and showed the mother beating the particles from her partner's pants.

The campaign leader said the organization has been contacted by informants who were participating in the disposal of materials in the community.