Childhood Cancer Protest Outside Council’s HQ

By Nadia Lincoln, Local Democracy Reporter

A group of parents concerned about cancer rates among Corby children have called for a public inquiry at a protest outside the headquarters of North Northamptonshire Council. 

Dozens of people gathered together to demand answers from NNC on what they say is disproportionately high childhood cancer rates, which they believe are linked to the mismanaged steelworks clean-up.

The protest took place last Thursday evening (July 16), ahead of the full council meeting at the authority’s Corby Cube headquarters, which all elected councillors are expected to attend.

Alison Gaffney, a Corby mum heading the local childhood cancer investigation, has led the group’s search for answers and has been in contact with dozens of local families whose children have developed cancer.

In 2018, her son Fraser was diagnosed with leukaemia at just 17 months old and was successfully treated. She said another recent cancer diagnosis in the town has spurred her on to take the fight to the council and ask for a public inquiry.

North Northants Council has said it is not the direct route for the public to request or lobby for a public inquiry, but that individuals or groups are able to lobby the government.

“Every diagnosis we hear of breaks our hearts, so we have got to do something noisy now, because we’re not getting noticed and we’re not being listened to,” Alison told the LDRS outside the Corby Cube.

“We need a public inquiry to find out the problems so they can be fixed and prevent more cases. We can’t change what has happened to us, but we can try and protect the future children in this town.

“[The council] might have been able to brush it under the carpet before, but all of these faces with all of these children that are here right now shows that it can’t be ignored.

“There needs to be a complete investigation into this and there needs to be transparency.”

NNC released the findings of a public health report in January this year which found that childhood cancer rates in Corby were no higher than in other areas. Despite this, parents have disputed the investigation and continue on their own search for information.

Carlyn attended the protest with her mum, Clare, to join the calls on the council for answers. Her three-year-old daughter, Paisley, was diagnosed with a rare cancer just before her second birthday and is still undergoing treatment.

“They’re supposed to be rare cancers, but we’ve got 10 children [in the last year] not just being diagnosed with cancer, but they’re all rare,” she said.

“Kids are losing their lives. How many more have to get diagnosed or die?

“Paisley has never been to nursery, she doesn’t have any friends because she can’t, she’s got PTSD from everything she’s been through. This is all about raising awareness, and there’s no support for parents either.”

Clare added: “The council need to be transparent with their figures. What we want to know is how many children have been diagnosed with cancer.

“The amount of people that were from the same area that were in Nottingham hospital [where Paisley received treatment] – there’s definitely something that’s not right.”

Rose is the great-grandmother of 10-year-old Emmy, who was first diagnosed with a rare liver cancer in 2024.

She said: “Every week you hear about something else or someone else, it shouldn’t be happening.

“I’m disgusted at NNC for a start because they’re there to represent the people of Corby and the surrounding areas. I just think it’s appalling that they can turn their backs on these children.

“There’s a disparity between the Corby childhood cancer numbers and their research, but they’re not willing to publish their figures so how can we get a true perspective on it?

“All these families, we are having to fight for a right. You just think how many more children have to suffer? Where does it stop?”

Six-year-old Ivy-Louise was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2024 and is now in remission. Her mum, Martinique, and grandmother, Kelly, said that since she moved to Corby when she was just one-month old it had been “illness after illness”.

Martinique appealed to the council to “be as brave as the kids that have had to fight the cancer that you might have caused” and agree to a public inquiry.

She said: “It was always the same comment when we went to Nottingham hospital of ‘oh, another one from Corby’.

“The council is sort of degrading the families that are going through it by saying ‘no there’s not that many, no we’ve just got a couple here and there’. Quite clearly, by the amount of people that are turning up today and trying to fight for it there are more than just a couple people.”

Kelly added: “When she was discharged to go into remission, other kids have been diagnosed with tumours, illnesses, all related to cancer and they’re all from the same hotspots in the town.

“We want answers, we want all the data exposed without hiding, and we want action and accountability.

“It’s all about protecting the kids and the next generation. We’re not going to stop now, we’re going to fight until the bitter end.”

North Northamptonshire Council has said that its public health report from earlier this year used two analyses from Hospital Episode Statistics data and National Cancer Registration data.

It said: “For the analysis of Hospital Episode Statistics data, the raw patient records were accessed through a data sharing agreement with NHS England. This explicitly states that we cannot share this data with a third party. We must adhere to that agreement.

“We can’t share counts of cases at Local Super Output Area level as they are so low.  The NHS places important rules around sharing NHS data when counts are very low, because doing so can identify individuals. We must adhere to these rules.”

On the requests for a public inquiry, it added: “Public inquiries are official investigations, initiated by UK government or a devolved government minister, to examine matters of ‘public concern’ about a particular event or set of events.

“The council is not the direct route for the public to request or lobby for public inquiry.

“Certain criteria need to be met for the government to consider a public inquiry. On balance, given the information available to us, we do not believe that that the criteria has been met.

“This does not prevent individuals lobbying ministers of government to call for an inquiry.”

You can access a council webpage providing information it has shared on the former steelworks in Corby here.