🔗 Share this article

Alison Gaffney and Andy Hinde were given devastating information in 2018 when their toddler their child was found to have a uncommon form of leukaemia.

An extended period of gruelling treatment followed, comprising drug treatments, targeted radiation, and biological therapies before a cellular therapy. The young boy, at three years old, made a extraordinary turnaround from the surgery, with physicians announcing the cancer in remission.

During this period that the mother, in her mid-thirties, began investigating answers. She constantly recalled observations made by healthcare workers at the time of her Fraser's condition. “We lose sleep wondering how Fraser got his disease,” a specialist had informed her.

“It keeps us up at night wondering how our son got his disease,” a specialist had informed her.

Past Events

The botched disposal of enormous amounts of hazardous substances after the shutdown of the town's primary employer in this community in 1979 had “widely acknowledged,” said Gaffney. A court ruling linked the improper remediation efforts of the site to a series of birth defects in town residents during the previous decades.

Increasingly, the concerned mother started to link the case to her own. “[Fraser’s cancer] is not inherited,” she said. “What could cause this? … It has to be down to the area. All these kids [with] illness.

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

Community Action

The parents started to connect with additional households in the town with similar stories – featuring some of Gaffney’s past schoolmates at their former educational institution – and the organization began assembling detailed records on those involved. They now lead a campaign supporting about many parents with cases of pediatric illness going back to 1988.

The organization has been pressuring the municipal government to examine any links between cases of childhood cancer in this community and the closure of the industrial site. In the coming weeks, health authorities are expected to release their study of whether the community has had a disproportionate number of cases of youth disease for its inhabitants of 70,000.

“What we seek is to try and protect coming generations so they do not have to endure the pain that we've endured,” said Alison.

Previous Cases

The ruling in the court proceeding recognized that, between the 1980s and 1990s, vast quantities of contaminated materials from the industrial facility were transported “almost invariably” from the southern part of town to a designated site in the northern section – with “large quantities” of toxic waste moved and dropped on local thoroughfares and “substantial quantities” of airborne particles produced by the remediation.

Nonetheless, it also cited findings from the Environment Agency in 1997 that found collections of contaminated material that had been abandoned at the site were later removed in “significant amounts”.

Expanding Concerns

Gaffney suspects waste was not merely deposited at the primary location but in other parts of the town. Recently, she applauded a “significant progress” after local authorities said it would test soil that could be tainted and investigate where hazardous materials was deposited.

The mother said government representatives admitted in the discussion that they lacked information where the areas of contaminated waste could be. “They stated: ‘We lack information where these locations are. Documentation is missing, there's no data available.’”

Community Support

The government declaration was also embraced by another parent, a pastoral lead at a local school, whose young child, her daughter, was confirmed to have a hematologic malignancy in the summer.

“I was forced to trim my nine-year-old daughter's head because her hair was falling out from the drugs she had to take to destroy her cancer. So actually it’s in the community's concern, it’s in her daughter's welfare [for the council] to reveal that information,” she stated.

“There are so many residents in the community that have been confirmed to have childhood cancer and I just feel it’s cannot be dismissed – it needs looking at. This isn't typical.”

Family Experiences

A community member, in her early thirties, who is employed in business and now resides elsewhere, said parents earned “absolute honesty and clarity” from the council.

The woman's young sibling, the girl, passed away on 24 June 2017 after being found to have a specific illness at the age of nine. Her sister, who fundraised for medical research, was “exceptionally charming, entertaining and kindest” persons, Lyons stated.

Her family member recollects the effect of the shutdown of the steel plant on the community, she stated. “She said you couldn’t put your hand in before you because [of] the red ash.”

“This situation has persisted since I’ve probably been about my youth. It's too long and it is irresponsibility toward the community members.”

Previous Involvement

Another family member, a community member, was among numerous households connected to the 2009 claim against the former government after her infant was had a congenital issue. Her husband, her partner, was one of the vehicle operators participating in handling substances from the industrial site. Their experience was depicted in a television program, and demonstrated the woman removing the particles from her husband’s jeans.

Alison said the campaign group has been reached out to by whistleblowers who were involved in the placement of materials in the area.