Community Members Pursuing Answers About Hazardous Substances Sites

Alison Gaffney and Fraser's father received life-altering news in 2018 when their toddler Fraser was found to have a unusual variant of blood cancer.

Two years of gruelling treatment followed, including drug treatments, targeted radiation, and immune system treatments before a bone marrow procedure. The young boy, by age three, made a remarkable improvement from the surgery, with medical staff declaring the cancer in recovery.

During this period that the mother, aged thirty-six, began seeking explanations. She constantly recalled remarks 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 doctor had informed her.

“It keeps us up at night wondering how Fraser got his illness,” a specialist had told her.

Background Information

The improper handling of vast quantities of contaminated waste after the closure of a major industrial facility in Corby in 1979 had “always been a known thing,” said Gaffney. A court ruling linked the council’s negligent clean-up of the site to a string of birth defects in town residents during the 1980s and 1990s.

Increasingly, the concerned mother started to link the situation to her own. “[The disease] is not inherited,” she explained. “So what are the reasons? … It’s got to be down to the community. All these kids [with] the disease.

“Everybody in this town knows somebody who’s got a minor [with] illness. That’s not normal.”

Collective Efforts

Alison and Andy started to contact additional households in their community with parallel situations – featuring some of Alison's ex-school friends at Brooke Weston Academy – and the collective began compiling detailed records on those impacted. They now lead a movement representing about many parents with cases of childhood cancer starting from 1988.

The organization has been calling on the town council to examine any links between instances of pediatric illness in Corby and the closure of the plant. Soon, health authorities are set to publish their evaluation of whether the town has had a unusually high rate of instances of youth disease for its inhabitants of seventy thousand.

“Our only goal is to try and protect subsequent residents so they won't experience the pain that we've experienced,” said Gaffney.

Previous Cases

The judgment in the legal case accepted that, between the 1980s and 1990s, enormous amounts of toxic substances from the steel plant were relocated “regularly” from the south of Corby to a specific location in the northern section – with “large quantities” of hazardous materials transported and dumped on local thoroughfares and “large volumes” of particulate matter created by the remediation.

Nonetheless, it also referenced reports from the environmental authorities in 1997 that found stockpiles of hazardous waste that had been left at this location were later taken away in “significant amounts”.

Expanding Concerns

Alison believes toxic substances was not only dumped at the main disposal area but in additional areas of the municipality. Recently, she welcomed a “important advancement” after municipal government said it would test soil that could be contaminated and research where hazardous materials was disposed of.

The mother said government representatives acknowledged in the conference that they did not know where the areas of contaminated waste could be. “They said: ‘We lack information where these areas are. We have no documentation, there's no data available.’”

Public Endorsement

The government declaration was also welcomed by Tonia Shalgosky, a educational worker at a primary school, whose nine-year-old daughter, Bella, was diagnosed with blood cancer in the summer.

“I was forced to trim my young child's scalp because her locks was falling out from the medications she had to administer to eliminate her disease. Consequently it’s in our interest, it’s in Bella’s interest [for the council] to disclose that knowledge,” she explained.

“There are so many residents in the area that have been diagnosed with childhood cancer and It seems it’s impossible to overlook – it requires investigation. This is unusual.”

Individual Accounts

Another resident, 31, who has a professional career and now has moved away, said families deserved “full transparency and transparency” from the local authority.

Her young sibling, Eve, died on 24 June 2017 after being confirmed to have a rare bone cancer at the age of nine. Eve, who fundraised for medical research, was “exceptionally charming, entertaining and compassionate” people, the sister stated.

Her family member remembers the consequence of the cessation of the steel plant on the area, she explained. “She mentioned you were unable to place your hand in front of your face because [of] the particulate matter.”

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

Historical Connections

Lyons’s cousin, a local resident, was one of several parents involved in the legal case against the previous administration after her newborn was had clubfoot. Her partner, the man, was one of the lorry drivers responsible for handling substances from the industrial site. Their experience was depicted in a recent series, and demonstrated the woman removing the dust from her husband’s jeans.

Alison said the organization has been contacted by whistleblowers who were involved in the disposal of materials in the town.