Survivors of the Grenfell Tower blaze have called for 'intensive testing' after firefighters who attended the 2017 blaze were diagnosed with terminal cancer. Up to a dozen firefighters who attended the tower block blaze have had a cancer diagnosis for which there is no cure.
Some are aged only in their 40s, a Mirror investigation found. Grenfell survivors have been told their health monitoring will be reviewed but believe more needs to be done so they can stop “living in fear” of deadly diseases from Grenfell’s toxins.
Those who have not yet been diagnosed have told the Mirror they fear for the future, with some cancers taking up to 25 years to appear. Nina Mendy, 42, said her mum Clarrie Mendy, 61, died in 2020 of motor neurone disease, which she believes was linked.
She said: “My mum died of a terrible illness and we spoke to professionals who agreed that it was caused by the fire. We need toxicology tests, blood tests, hair strand tests. Just looking at the data is pointless, some diseases don’t appear for years.”
In the US, more than 60 types of cancer and about two dozen other conditions related to the 9/11 terror attacks have been identified, the Mirror reported. It was discovered about 500,000 people breathed in toxins for months near Ground Zero.
NHS North West London Integrated Care Board said their data so far had not identified “any evidence of increases in cancers”. It said: “We recognise why the community are so worried and we are keen to work alongside them to address their very real concerns.”
However Joe Delaney, 42, who lived in a building that was evacuated opposite Grenfell, said: “There is nothing that has been promised that wasn’t promised to us first in 2018, then 2019 and now in 2023. I don’t think anyone’s health has been monitored around here."
Grenfell was one of the worst disasters in UK's modern history. Victims included six members of one family - the Choucair Family and five members of the Hashim Family, who lived on the 22nd floor.
