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A local mother and her partner faced devastating diagnosis in 2018 when their 17-month-old their baby was diagnosed with a uncommon form of childhood cancer.

24 months of gruelling treatment followed, involving drug treatments, radiotherapy, and biological therapies before a stem cell transplant. The young boy, by age three, made a “miraculous recovery” from the procedure, with physicians declaring the cancer in recovery.

It was at this point that Gaffney, 36, began looking for causes. She remained troubled by observations made by medical professionals at the time of her Fraser's condition. “It keeps us up at night wondering how he got his illness,” a consultant had shared with her.

“We can't sleep wondering how Fraser got his disease,” a specialist had told her.

Historical Context

The improper handling of enormous amounts of hazardous substances after the closure of the town's primary employer in this community in 1979 had “long been recognized,” said Alison. A 2009 civil case associated the local authority's mismanagement of the site to a string of developmental issues in local children during the 1980s and 1990s.

Over time, Alison started to associate the situation to her own. “[The disease] is not inherited,” she explained. “So what are the reasons? … It must be down to the town. All these kids [with] illness.

“Everybody in this town is acquainted with a person who’s got a minor [with] the disease. That's unusual.”

Community Action

Alison and Andy started to connect with other families in the town with similar stories – including some of the mother's former classmates at a local school – and the organization began assembling comprehensive documentation on those affected. They now spearhead a movement representing about 130 families with instances of youth disease going back to 1988.

The organization has been calling on the local authority to research any links between occurrences of pediatric illness in this community and the closure of the plant. Soon, public health officials are set to publish their study of whether the town has had a unusually high rate of instances of childhood cancer for its population of the local community.

“What we seek is to work to secure future people so they can avoid the hardship that we've endured,” said Alison.

Previous Cases

The ruling in the legal case recognized that, between a fourteen-year period, vast quantities of hazardous waste from the industrial facility were transported “almost invariably” from the southern part of town to a specific location in the opposite end – with “large quantities” of contaminated substances carried and dropped on community streets and “substantial quantities” of airborne particles produced by the cleanup.

However, it also mentioned findings from the Environment Agency in 1997 that identified accumulations of toxic substances that had been deposited at this location were later extracted in “substantial volumes”.

Additional Issues

Alison believes toxic substances was not only dumped at the primary location but in other parts of the town. Lately, she applauded a “major step forward” after municipal government said it would test land that could be tainted and study where toxic waste was dumped.

Alison said council staff admitted in the meeting that they did not know where the locations of toxic materials could be. “They explained: ‘We're uncertain where these sites are. We have no documentation, we possess no information.’”

Community Support

The official statement was also embraced by a community member, a pastoral lead at a primary school, whose nine-year-old daughter, Bella, was found to have blood cancer in the summer.

“I needed to cut my nine-year-old daughter's scalp because her tresses was coming out from the treatments she had to use to eliminate her illness. Therefore it’s in everyone's benefit, it’s in Bella’s interest [for the council] to disclose that data,” she stated.

“Countless people in the town that have been confirmed to have youth disease and I just feel it’s cannot be dismissed – it requires investigation. This is unusual.”

Personal Stories

Another resident, aged thirty-one, who is employed in business and now resides elsewhere, said families deserved “full transparency and openness” from the council.

Her 11-year-old sister, Eve, succumbed on a specific date after being confirmed to have a specific illness at the childhood. The girl, who fundraised for health organizations, was “exceptionally lovable, entertaining and kindest” people, the sister stated.

Her parent recollects the impact of the closure of the industrial facility on the area, she stated. “She mentioned you could not position your palm in ahead of you because [of] the particulate matter.”

“This has been going on since I was approximately about three years old. It’s an excessive amount of time and it is negligence toward the community members.”

Past Associations

Lyons’s cousin, a local resident, was one of several families involved in the court proceeding against the previous administration after her infant was diagnosed with a foot condition. Her spouse, Derek, was a member of the truck operators responsible for transporting materials from the steelworks. Their story was portrayed in a television program, and demonstrated Maggie beating the particles from her spouse's clothing.

Gaffney said the collective has been contacted by informants who were responsible for the dumping of waste in the community.