🔗 Share this article

A concerned parent and Andy Hinde were given life-altering information in 2018 when their young son Fraser was found to have a uncommon form of blood cancer.

24 months of demanding therapies came next, involving cancer medications, radiation therapy, and immunotherapy before a stem cell transplant. Their son, at three years old, made a remarkable improvement from the procedure, with medical staff announcing the disease in remission.

As Fraser improved that Gaffney, in her mid-thirties, began seeking explanations. She could not stop thinking about observations made by hospital staff at the time of her Fraser's condition. “We lose sleep wondering how he got his cancer,” a specialist had informed her.

“It keeps us up at night wondering how he got his illness,” a consultant had shared with her.

Past Events

The negligent management of millions of tonnes of contaminated waste after the shutdown of a major industrial facility in this community in 1979 had “always been a known thing,” said Gaffney. A 2009 civil case associated the improper remediation efforts of the site to a string of birth defects in community youth during the twentieth century.

Increasingly, Gaffney started to connect the circumstances to her own. “[His illness] is not hereditary,” she said. “What's the explanation? … It’s got to be down to the community. All these kids [with] the disease.

“Everybody in this town is acquainted with a person who’s got a child [with] illness. That’s not normal.”

Collective Efforts

Alison and Andy started to connect with other families in their community with parallel situations – including some of the mother's past schoolmates at Brooke Weston Academy – and the group began gathering detailed records on those affected. They now lead a movement advocating for about 130 families with instances of youth disease going back to 1988.

The collective has been pressuring the municipal government to examine any relationships between cases of childhood cancer in this community and the closure of the facility. At the end of this month, public health officials are set to publish their evaluation of whether the community has had a disproportionate number of cases of pediatric illness for its population of 70,000.

“All we want is to try and protect coming generations so they can avoid the suffering that we've endured,” said the mother.

Legal Precedents

The decision in the 2009 civil claim accepted that, between 1983 and 1997, vast quantities of contaminated materials from the industrial facility were moved “typically” from the southern part of town to a specific location in the opposite end – with “large quantities” of hazardous materials carried and deposited on public roads and “considerable amounts” of airborne particles generated by the cleanup.

Nevertheless, it also mentioned findings from the regulatory body in 1997 that identified stockpiles of hazardous waste that had been deposited at this location were later taken away in “significant amounts”.

Expanding Concerns

The campaign leader suspects contaminated materials was not merely deposited at the Deene Quarry site but in additional areas of the community. In recent developments, she applauded a “significant progress” after local authorities said it would analyze soil that could be tainted and study where hazardous materials was disposed of.

Gaffney said government representatives acknowledged in the conference that they did not know where the sites of hazardous substances could be. “They stated: ‘We lack information where these locations are. Documentation is missing, we have nothing on it.’”

Community Support

The council’s announcement was also welcomed by Tonia Shalgosky, a pastoral lead at a elementary institution, whose young child, her daughter, was found to have a hematologic malignancy in recent months.

“I had to shave my little girl's head because her hair was shedding from the medications she had to take to eliminate her cancer. Consequently it’s in everyone's benefit, it’s in the child's wellbeing [for the council] to disclose that knowledge,” she explained.

“Numerous individuals in the area that have been found to have childhood cancer and I believe it’s too much to ignore – it demands examination. This can’t be normal.”

Family Experiences

Meg Lyons, 31, who has a professional career and now resides elsewhere, said households earned “absolute honesty and openness” from the government.

Lyons’s family member, her sister, passed away on in recent years after being confirmed to have a uncommon malignancy at the young age. The girl, who raised awareness for health organizations, was “one of the most adorable, entertaining and compassionate” people, Lyons recalled.

Her family member recollects the effect of the closure of the steel plant on the community, the woman said. “She said you couldn’t put your palm in front of your face because [of] the red ash.”

“This has been going on since around about three years old. It's too long and it is negligence toward the local residents.”

Past Associations

Lyons’s cousin, a local resident, was one of several families participating in the court proceeding against the former government after her newborn was had a congenital issue. Her husband, Derek, was a member of the truck operators involved in removing waste from the manufacturing facility. Their situation was depicted in a media production, and showed Maggie beating the dust from her partner's pants.

Alison said the organization has been approached by individuals with information who were responsible for the disposal of substances in the area.