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A local mother and her partner received life-altering news in 2018 when their young son their child was diagnosed with a unusual variant of leukaemia.

An extended period of gruelling treatment came next, involving cancer medications, radiation therapy, and biological therapies before a bone marrow procedure. Their son, then aged three, made a extraordinary turnaround from the surgery, with doctors declaring the illness in remission.

During this period that the mother, in her mid-thirties, began looking for causes. She constantly recalled observations made by healthcare workers at the time of her son’s diagnosis. “We lose sleep wondering how our son got his illness,” a specialist had informed her.

“We're constantly wondering wondering how he got his illness,” a doctor had told her.

Historical Context

The negligent management of enormous amounts of contaminated waste after the cessation of Europe’s largest steelworks in Corby in 1979 had “long been recognized,” said Gaffney. A court ruling associated the council’s negligent clean-up of the site to a series of congenital abnormalities in local children during the 1980s and 1990s.

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

“Every resident knows somebody who’s got a youngster [with] illness. That's unusual.”

Community Action

The parents started to connect with additional households in the town with parallel situations – featuring some of the mother's past schoolmates at Brooke Weston Academy – and the collective began compiling comprehensive documentation on those affected. They now head a campaign supporting about 130 families with situations of childhood cancer starting from 1988.

The group has been pressuring the municipal government to examine any connections between instances of childhood cancer in Corby and the shutdown of the plant. At the end of this month, medical experts are preparing to share their evaluation of whether the community has had a disproportionate number of instances of pediatric illness for its population of the local community.

“All we want is to work to secure subsequent residents so they can avoid the hardship that we've endured,” said Alison.

Previous Cases

The ruling in the 2009 civil claim recognized that, between 1983 and 1997, vast quantities of hazardous waste from the steel plant were transported “almost invariably” from the southern part of town to a specific location in the opposite end – with “significant amounts” of hazardous materials moved and deposited on public roads and “substantial quantities” of airborne particles created by the reclamation.

Nevertheless, it also referenced findings from the environmental authorities in 1997 that discovered stockpiles of toxic substances that had been abandoned at this location were later removed in “large quantities”.

Growing Suspicions

Alison believes toxic substances was not only dumped at the primary location but in additional areas of the municipality. In recent developments, she applauded a “major step forward” after local authorities said it would analyze ground that could be contaminated and investigate where contaminated substances was disposed of.

Gaffney said council staff acknowledged in the discussion that they did not know where the sites of hazardous substances could be. “They said: ‘We're uncertain where these locations are. There are no records, there's no data available.’”

Local Backing

The government declaration was also welcomed by Tonia Shalgosky, a educational worker at a local school, whose school-aged girl, her daughter, was confirmed to have a hematologic malignancy in June this year.

“I was forced to trim my young child's head because her locks was shedding from the medications she had to use to destroy her cancer. Therefore it’s in our interest, it’s in the child's wellbeing [for the council] to disclose that knowledge,” she said.

“There are so many people in the community that have been diagnosed with youth disease and It seems it’s too much to ignore – it demands examination. This can’t be normal.”

Personal Stories

A community member, in her early thirties, who has a professional career and now lives in London, said parents deserved “full transparency and openness” from the local authority.

Lyons’s 11-year-old sister, her sister, passed away on in recent years after being diagnosed with a uncommon malignancy at the young age. Her sister, who raised awareness for health organizations, was “exceptionally charming, humorous and compassionate” persons, Lyons said.

Her parent recalls the impact of the closure of the steel plant on the town, the woman said. “She mentioned you couldn’t put your fingers in ahead of 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 carelessness toward the local residents.”

Past Associations

Lyons’s cousin, a community member, was part of multiple families involved in the court proceeding against the then Corby council after her infant was diagnosed with a foot condition. Her partner, Derek, was among the truck operators involved in transporting materials from the manufacturing facility. Their story was shown in a television program, and showed the woman cleaning the debris from her spouse's clothing.

The campaign leader said the organization has been contacted by informants who were involved in the disposal of waste in the town.