Alison Gaffney and Andy Hinde received the devastating news that their 17-month-old son, Fraser, had a rare type of leukaemia in 2018. Two years of gruelling treatment followed, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy, before a stem cell transplant. Fraser, then aged three, made a miraculous recovery, and doctors declared the cancer in remission.
As Fraser recovered, Gaffney began seeking answers. She recalled a consultant's comment: 'It keeps us up at night wondering how Fraser got his cancer.' The botched disposal of millions of tonnes of contaminated waste after the closure of Europe's largest steelworks in Corby, Northamptonshire, in 1979 had 'always been a known thing', she said. A 2009 civil case linked the council's negligent clean-up to birth defects in local children, later dramatised in the Netflix series Toxic Town.
Gaffney and Hinde connected with other families, compiling records on about 130 cases of childhood cancer dating back to 1988. They are calling on the local authority to investigate links between the cancer cases and the decommissioning of the plant. At the end of this month, public health officials will publish their analysis of whether the town of 70,000 has had a disproportionate number of childhood cancer cases.
The 2009 judgment accepted that between 1983 and 1997, millions of tonnes of contaminated materials were transported from the steel plant to Deene Quarry, with toxic waste carried on public roads and dust created. Gaffney believes waste was also dumped elsewhere. On Thursday, North Northamptonshire council said it would test potentially contaminated land and investigate where toxic waste was dumped.
Gaffney welcomed the move, noting council staff admitted they did not know where all the contaminated sites were. The council said it was reviewing historic records to see if disposal took place elsewhere. Tonia Shalgosky, whose nine-year-old daughter Bella was diagnosed with blood cancer in June, also welcomed the announcement.
