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A local mother and Andy Hinde were given heartbreaking diagnosis in 2018 when their young son their child was found to have a unusual variant of leukaemia.

An extended period of intensive medical care followed, including cancer medications, radiation therapy, and immune system treatments before a stem cell transplant. Their son, by age three, made a extraordinary turnaround from the operation, with doctors declaring the disease in recovery.

As Fraser improved that the mother, 36, began looking for answers. She could not stop thinking about comments made by healthcare workers at the time of her Fraser's condition. “We're tormented wondering how Fraser got his illness,” a doctor had informed her.

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

Historical Context

The negligent management of enormous amounts of toxic materials after the cessation of the town's primary employer in the town 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 series of developmental issues in community youth during the twentieth century.

Gradually, the concerned mother started to connect the case to her own. “[Fraser’s cancer] is not hereditary,” she explained. “So what are the reasons? … It must be down to the community. Numerous young people [with] the disease.

“Everybody in this town knows someone who’s got a youngster [with] the disease. That's unusual.”

Community Action

Alison and Andy started to connect with other families in their community with parallel situations – including some of the mother's former classmates at their former educational institution – and the collective began assembling detailed records on those impacted. They now lead a initiative supporting about many parents with instances of childhood cancer starting from 1988.

The organization has been pressuring the municipal government to investigate any links between occurrences of pediatric illness in this community and the decommissioning of the industrial site. At the end of this month, medical experts are set to publish their study of whether the town has had a unusually high rate of instances of youth disease for its population of seventy thousand.

“All we want is to work to secure subsequent residents so they won't experience the pain that we’ve been through,” said Alison.

Previous Cases

The judgment in the court proceeding acknowledged that, between a fourteen-year period, millions of tonnes of toxic substances from the industrial facility were moved “almost invariably” from the one area to a designated site in the north – with “significant amounts” of contaminated substances moved and dumped on public roads and “substantial quantities” of airborne particles produced by the reclamation.

Nonetheless, it also mentioned reports from the regulatory body in 1997 that discovered accumulations of hazardous waste that had been left at Deene Quarry were later taken away in “significant amounts”.

Additional Issues

Gaffney suspects toxic substances was not merely deposited at the Deene Quarry site but in additional areas of the community. In recent developments, she approved a “significant progress” after local authorities said it would test soil that could be contaminated and research where contaminated substances was dumped.

The mother said local officials confirmed in the discussion that they lacked information where the locations of hazardous substances could be. “They said: ‘We don’t know where these sites are. There are no records, we possess no information.’”

Local Backing

The official statement was also supported by another parent, a pastoral lead at a primary school, whose young child, her daughter, was confirmed to have blood cancer in June this year.

“I needed to cut my little girl's scalp because her locks was falling out from the treatments she had to administer to kill her cancer. So actually it’s in everyone's benefit, it’s in Bella’s interest [for the council] to reveal that data,” she explained.

“There are so many people in the area that have been found to have youth disease and It seems it’s cannot be dismissed – it needs looking at. This can’t be normal.”

Individual Accounts

A community member, in her early thirties, who works in sales and now lives in London, said families merited “absolute honesty and transparency” from the council.

Lyons’s 11-year-old sister, Eve, passed away on a specific date after being diagnosed with a rare bone cancer at the age of nine. Eve, who raised awareness for cancer charities, was “among the adorable, funniest and kindest” people, Lyons stated.

Her parent recalls the effect of the cessation of the industrial facility on the town, the woman stated. “She mentioned you couldn’t put your fingers in ahead of you because [of] the colored dust.”

“This has been going on since I’ve probably been about my youth. It’s an excessive amount of time and it is negligence toward the people of Corby.”

Historical Connections

Another family member, a local resident, was part of multiple parents participating in the legal case against the then Corby council after her baby was diagnosed with clubfoot. Her partner, Derek, was one of the lorry drivers involved in removing waste from the manufacturing facility. Their situation was shown in a television program, and illustrated the mother removing the particles from her partner's pants.

Gaffney said the organization has been reached out to by informants who were responsible for the placement of materials in the area.