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Alison Gaffney and Fraser's father faced heartbreaking news in 2018 when their toddler their baby was found to have a rare type of blood cancer.

24 months of gruelling treatment ensued, involving chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and immunotherapy before a cellular therapy. Their son, then aged three, made a extraordinary turnaround from the operation, with doctors confirming the illness in remission.

It was at this point that Alison, 36, began looking for causes. She could not stop thinking about 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 disease,” a consultant had informed her.

“It keeps us up at night wondering how our son got his disease,” a specialist had shared with her.

Background Information

The improper handling of enormous amounts of hazardous substances after the cessation of the town's primary employer in Corby in 1979 had “long been recognized,” said the mother. A 2009 civil case linked the local authority's mismanagement of the site to a series of developmental issues in town residents during the 1980s and 1990s.

Over time, Alison started to connect the situation to her own. “[His illness] is not inherited,” she stated. “So what are the reasons? … It must be down to the area. So many children [with] cancer.

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

Grassroots Movement

Alison and Andy started to contact additional households in their community with similar stories – including some of the mother's ex-school friends at a local school – and the organization began assembling thorough information on those involved. They now lead a campaign representing about many parents with situations of childhood cancer going back to 1988.

The collective has been pressuring the local authority to investigate any links between instances of pediatric illness in Corby and the closure of the industrial site. In the coming weeks, health authorities are expected to release their study of whether the town has had a unusually high rate of instances of youth disease for its population of 70,000.

“All we want is to work to secure future people so they can avoid the pain that we've endured,” said Gaffney.

Legal Precedents

The ruling in the legal case recognized that, between a fourteen-year period, vast quantities of toxic substances from the manufacturing site were transported “regularly” from the south of Corby to a designated site in the opposite end – with “large quantities” of contaminated substances carried and dropped on public roads and “substantial quantities” of dust created by the cleanup.

Nonetheless, it also cited documents from the Environment Agency in 1997 that identified accumulations of toxic substances that had been left at this location were later taken away in “substantial volumes”.

Additional Issues

Gaffney maintains toxic substances was not merely deposited at the main disposal area but in additional areas of the community. In recent developments, she welcomed a “major step forward” after municipal government said it would test soil that could be tainted and study where contaminated substances was disposed of.

The mother said government representatives confirmed in the meeting that they did not know where the locations of toxic materials could be. “They said: ‘We lack information where these locations are. We have no documentation, we have nothing on it.’”

Community Support

The council’s announcement was also embraced by another parent, a school staff member at a primary school, whose nine-year-old daughter, the child, was found to have leukaemia in June this year.

“I had to shave my young child's scalp because her locks was coming out from the treatments she had to use to kill her illness. Consequently it’s in everyone's benefit, it’s in the child's wellbeing [for the council] to reveal that data,” she explained.

“Numerous residents in the area that have been confirmed to have youth disease and I believe it’s impossible to overlook – it requires investigation. This is unusual.”

Personal Stories

Meg Lyons, aged thirty-one, who works in sales and now has moved away, said parents merited “absolute honesty and transparency” from the council.

Her family member, Eve, succumbed on in recent years after being confirmed to have a specific illness at the young age. Her sister, who fundraised for health organizations, was “one of the most charming, humorous and caring” people, the sister recalled.

Her mother remembers the impact of the shutdown of the industrial facility on the town, the woman explained. “She said you couldn’t put your hand in before you because [of] the particulate matter.”

“This has been going on since I was approximately about my youth. This duration is unreasonable and it is negligence toward the community members.”

Historical Connections

Another family member, a local resident, was one of several parents involved in the 2009 claim against the then Corby council after her baby was had clubfoot. Her partner, her partner, was a member of the vehicle operators responsible for removing waste from the industrial site. Their situation was depicted in a recent series, and demonstrated the mother beating the dust from her husband’s jeans.

Gaffney said the collective has been reached out to by whistleblowers who were responsible for the disposal of materials in the area.