Alison Gaffney and Andy Hind received devastating news that their 17-month-old son Fraser had contracted a rare type of leukemia in 2018.
This was followed by two years of grueling treatment, including chemotherapy, radiation and immunotherapy, followed by a stem cell transplant. Fraser, then three years old, made a “miraculous recovery” from surgery before doctors declared the cancer was in remission.
It was at this point, as Frazier began to recover and become stronger, that Gaffney, 36, began searching for answers. She couldn't stop thinking about the comments the hospital staff made during her son's diagnosis. “It keeps us up at night wondering how Fraser got cancer,” the consultant told her.
The failure to dispose of millions of tonnes of contaminated waste following the closure of Europe's largest steelworks in Corby, Northamptonshirein 1979, “it was always known,” Gaffney said. A 2009 civil lawsuit linked the municipality's negligent cleanup of the site to a number of birth defects in local children in the 1980s and 1990s. It was later dramatized in the 2025 Netflix series Toxic City.
Gaffney increasingly began to connect this case with her own. “[Fraser’s cancer is] not genetic,” she said. – So what are the reasons? … It should be in the city. All these kids [with] Cancer.
“Everyone in this town knows someone who has a child [with] Cancer. This is not normal.”
Gaffney and Hinde began communicating with other families in Corby, telling stories similar to theirs, including some of Gaffney's former classmates at Brooke Weston Academy, and the group began collecting detailed records of the victims. They are now leading a campaign representing about 130 families affected by childhood cancer since 1988.
The group called on local authorities to investigate any links between childhood cancer cases in Corby and the decommissioning of the plant. Later this month, public health officials are set to release their analysis of whether the city had a disproportionate number of childhood cancer cases for its population of 70,000.
“All we want to do is try to protect future people so they don't have to endure the pain that we went through,” Gaffney said.
A 2009 civil claim ruling found that between 1983 and 1997, millions of tonnes of contaminated steelworks material was “almost always” transported from south Corby to Dean Quarry in the north – with “large quantities” of toxic waste carried and dumped on public roads and “significant quantities” of dust generated by reclamation.
However, it also cited EPA reports from 1997 that found stockpiles of contaminated material left behind at the Dean Quarry were later removed in “large quantities.”
Gaffney believes that waste was dumped not only at the Dean Quarry, but also in other parts of the city. On Thursday she hailed a “big step forward” after North Northamptonshire Council said it would inspect land that may be contaminated and find out where toxic waste was dumped.
Gaffney said council staff admitted at the meeting they did not know where the contaminated waste disposal sites might be. “They said, 'We don't know where these objects are. We don't have documentation, we don't have anything on them.'”
In a statement to the Guardian, North Northamptonshire council said information they had seen since then “suggests that the waste was dumped at Dean Quarry, a former landfill site on the outskirts of Corby,” but added: “People have recently raised concerns about potential sites of contaminated land where they believe waste may also have been disposed of historically.
“We are carefully reviewing historical records to see if there is any information to suggest the burial may have occurred elsewhere. This work will take time.”
Gaffney said they were shocked by the transparency of the meeting with the council. “Local authorities don't usually put their hands up and take on this, but we are very proud of them for this and say they want to protect their people just like we do.”
The council's announcement was also welcomed by Tonya Shalgoski, pastoral head of the primary school, whose nine-year-old daughter Bella was diagnosed with blood cancer in June this year.
“I had to shave my nine-year-old daughter's head because she was losing her hair because of the drugs she was taking to fight cancer. So it's actually in our best interests, in Bella's best interests. [for the council] share this information,” she said.
“There are so many people in the city who are diagnosed with childhood cancer and I feel like it's too much to ignore – it needs to be addressed. This can't be normal.”
Meg Lyons, 31, who works in sales and now lives in London, said families deserved “full and complete truth and transparency” from the council.
Lyons' 11-year-old sister, Eva, died on June 24, 2017, after being diagnosed with a rare bone cancer at the age of nine. Eva, who raised funds for Stand Up To Cancerwas “one of the nicest, funniest, kindest” people, Lyons said.
Lyons said her mother remembers the impact the steel mill's closure had on the city. “She said you shouldn't put your hand near your face because [of] red ash.”
“This has been going on since I was probably about three years old. It's too long and it's neglectful of the people of Corby.”
Lyons' cousin, Maggie Mahon, was one of several families involved in a 2009 lawsuit against then-Corby council after her child was born with a clubfoot. Her husband Derek was one of the truck drivers hauling waste from the steel mill. Their story was depicted in the TV series Toxic City, where Maggie wiped the dust off her husband's jeans.
Gaffney said the campaign group was contacted by whistleblowers who were involved in dumping waste in the city.
One of those who helped remove the trash was Gaffney's father. “He was driving a truck and threw [the waste in a] pond,” she said. “At that time, everyone lost their job, so everyone took whatever job they could.”
“He didn't even have a license to drive a truck. He said, 'Me and the other guys didn't have a license, but they made us drive these big trucks around town, just throwing them away,'” she said.
The lawyer involved in the 2009 civil suit, Des Collins, now represents Gaffney and other families of cancer patients. He said only a statutory public inquiry would ensure the full truth was revealed.
“Environmental testing to rule out causation is a very complex process that requires strict parameters and oversight before the results can be relied upon,” he said.
“Regardless of how sincere the council's new approach is, I am compelled to point out that, in my experience, only a statutory public inquiry has the potential to both reassure the public that the whole truth has been revealed and to set out the lessons that need to be learned.”
In a statement, council leader Martin Griffiths said the meeting with Gaffney and Hinde “marked the beginning of the parties' commitment to working together in an open, positive and constructive manner for the benefit of the people of Corby”.
The council said it was committed to full transparency and would set up a working group, including Gaffney, to look into public health and pollution issues in Corby.
Gaffney hopes testing on land in Corby will begin as soon as the group is established. “Now I listen to each family's story and it's so hard. If anything, it just gives us more struggle,” she said.
“Every time it just peels away and then it makes your fight stronger because you think, 'We have to find answers for these kids.'
