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Alison Gaffney and Fraser's father received life-altering news in 2018 when their 17-month-old their baby was found to have a unusual variant of childhood cancer.

An extended period of intensive medical care came next, including cancer medications, radiation therapy, and immunotherapy before a bone marrow procedure. The young boy, then aged three, made a extraordinary turnaround from the operation, with doctors announcing the disease in regression.

It was at this point that Alison, 36, began investigating explanations. She could not stop thinking about remarks made by healthcare workers at the time of her son’s diagnosis. “We lose sleep wondering how Fraser got his illness,” a specialist had informed her.

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

Historical Context

The botched disposal of enormous amounts of hazardous substances after the closure of the town's primary employer in this community in 1979 had “widely acknowledged,” said the mother. A legal proceeding associated the local authority's mismanagement of the site to a string of developmental issues in town residents during the previous decades.

Over time, Alison started to connect the circumstances to her own. “[The disease] is not genetic,” she said. “So what are the reasons? … It must be down to the community. All these kids [with] cancer.

“Every resident is acquainted with a person who’s got a child [with] illness. This isn't typical.”

Grassroots Movement

Alison and Andy started to contact other families in their community with parallel situations – including some of Alison's former classmates at a local school – and the organization began assembling comprehensive documentation on those impacted. They now head a movement supporting about many parents with instances of youth disease starting from 1988.

The organization has been urging the local authority to investigate any relationships between cases of pediatric illness in this community and the shutdown of the facility. In the coming weeks, medical experts are set to publish their evaluation of whether the area has had a unusually high rate of cases of youth disease for its population of seventy thousand.

“What we seek is to work to secure subsequent residents so they won't experience the hardship that we’ve been through,” said the mother.

Legal Precedents

The ruling in the 2009 civil claim accepted that, between 1983 and 1997, millions of tonnes of hazardous waste from the manufacturing site were relocated “almost invariably” from the southern part of town to a designated site in the north – with “large quantities” of toxic waste moved and dropped on community streets and “substantial quantities” of airborne particles produced by the remediation.

Nevertheless, it also mentioned documents from the environmental authorities in 1997 that discovered stockpiles of toxic substances that had been left at this location were later taken away in “large quantities”.

Growing Suspicions

Alison maintains toxic substances was not merely deposited at the main disposal area but in additional areas of the municipality. Recently, she applauded a “major step forward” after municipal government said it would examine land that could be tainted and research where toxic waste was disposed of.

Alison said local officials confirmed in the conference that they lacked information where the locations of contaminated waste could be. “They explained: ‘We don’t know where these locations are. We have no documentation, we possess no information.’”

Community Support

The government declaration was also supported by another parent, a educational worker at a local school, whose nine-year-old daughter, Bella, was diagnosed with blood cancer in the summer.

“I was forced to trim my young child's head because her locks was coming out from the medications she had to administer to kill her cancer. Consequently it’s in our interest, it’s in her daughter's welfare [for the council] to reveal that knowledge,” she said.

“Numerous residents in the town that have been diagnosed with childhood cancer and I believe it’s impossible to overlook – it needs looking at. This isn't typical.”

Individual Accounts

Another resident, aged thirty-one, who has a professional career and now has moved away, said households merited “absolute honesty and transparency” from the government.

The woman's 11-year-old sister, the girl, died on a specific date after being found to have a rare bone cancer at the age of nine. The girl, who fundraised for medical research, was “one of the most adorable, humorous and caring” persons, she said.

Her family member recalls the impact of the closure of the steel plant on the town, the woman said. “She mentioned you could not position your fingers in front of your face because [of] the particulate matter.”

“This has been going on since around about early childhood. This duration is unreasonable and it is irresponsibility toward the community members.”

Past Associations

Lyons’s cousin, a local resident, was part of multiple households involved in the 2009 claim against the former government after her newborn was born with clubfoot. Her partner, her partner, was one of the lorry drivers involved in removing waste from the industrial site. Their story was shown in a television program, and illustrated the mother removing the dust from her spouse's clothing.

Gaffney said the organization has been approached by informants who were responsible for the placement of materials in the town.