Families demand answers about childhood cancer cases in Corby
Families of children diagnosed with childhood cancer in the area are calling for a public inquiry.
Last updated 11th Sep 2025
Calls for a full public inquiry into Corby’s toxic waste scandal are growing as more families fear their children may have been affected.
Alison Gaffney, a Corby mother and full-time carer for her son Fraser, has spoken out after discovering worrying numbers of childhood cancer cases in the town.
Eight-year-old Fraser was diagnosed with a rare cancer at just 17 months old, enduring relapses and a bone marrow transplant before being declared a survivor five years on.
While at Leicester Royal Infirmary, where Fraser was treated, Mrs Gaffney and her husband began to notice an unsettling pattern. “We really started to see so many families from Corby.”
“It just became too many families to brush off. A consultant even said to us, ‘I think somebody should look into why there are so many families from Corby getting childhood cancers.’ That observation spurred Mrs Gaffney and a small group of parents to start researching. Through social media and community outreach, they have now recorded around 130 cases of childhood cancer in Corby since the late 1980s.
“At the start of this year, there were three new cases diagnosed within a week of each other,” she said. “Childhood cancer is supposed to be rare — but here, everybody knows somebody who’s been affected. That’s terrifying.”
The discovery has left families devastated and determined. “We can’t change what’s happened to us, but we’re trying to stop more children from going through this. We don’t want anyone else to wake up with the fear we all still carry.”
The group is now working with Des Collins, the lawyer behind the landmark 2009 court case that proved Corby Borough Council had mishandled toxic waste during regeneration works in the 1980s and 1990s.
A public inquiry, Collins has suggested, could be the best way forward, not only to investigate the cancer cases but also to address other serious health concerns. Corby families have also reported patterns of limb differences and baby losses, issues which were highlighted earlier this year in Netflix’s drama Toxic Town.
In a landmark High Court ruling in 2009, Corby Borough Council was found negligent in its management of toxic waste at the former steelworks site in the town during the 1980s and 1990s.
The council denied it was negligent and that there was a link between the removal of waste to a quarry north of the site and deformities affecting hands and feet.
But Mr Justice Akenhead found there was a "statistically significant" cluster of birth defects between 1989 and 1999.
The council later agreed to pay compensation to the children affected.