Netflix recently launched the eagerly anticipated series Toxic Town, starring Jodie Whittaker and Aimee Lou Wood. The series delves into the harrowing real-life story of the Corby poisonings, a monumental environmental scandal in the UK.
The quartet of episodes portrays the journey of Corby mothers fighting for justice due to their children being born with disabilities believed to be caused by exposure to environmental toxins.
On its debut day (27 February), the cast, including Jodie and Aimee, met with mothers Susan McIntyre, Tracey Taylor, and Maggie Mahon, leading to poignant moments as they discussed the real-life accounts that inspired the Netflix show.
Speaking highly of the portrayals, Tracey exclaimed about the actors: "They have done us all proud, they have done the children proud." Complementing her sentiment, Aimee, who plays Tracey on screen, expressed: "I'm so honoured that I got to play you."
The conversation drew deep emotions as Tracey opened up about the loss of her daughter Shelby Anne, who sadly died after just four days. Addressing Aimee, Tracey fought through tears to commend her: "What you have done for her (Shelby), I am in debt to you because you have done her justice, and you have done us justice, and we will be forever grateful," reports Surrey Live.
Tracey explained how quickly joy turned to concern as Shelby Anne required immediate medical attention: "They took her down to the special baby care unit and put her on oxygen, and that's when the doctor said 'we honestly do think there's something seriously wrong'."
"We called our priest who'd married us and asked him to come and baptise her and give her a blessing. And then they [doctors] came back and took us into a room and said, 'Look, we're really sorry, but unfortunately, she's only got a two-chamber heart instead of a four-chamber heart. There's blood being pumped straight into her lungs as opposed to her heart."
In recounting the heart-wrenching choices she faced, Tracey revealed her desperate appeal to the doctors for intervention, only to be informed of the extremely high risk seeming to doom any surgical attempt: a 90 percent chance of Shelby Anne not surviving the operation. The revelation ultimately led Tracey to the agonising decision of withdrawing her daughter from life support.
Tracey recounted the heartbreaking decision to take her daughter off life support, saying: "We asked my Mum and Dad to come and see their granddaughter and say their goodbyes, to which they did. And we decided as parents we would take her off the life support machine. If she lasted a little while, then we would give her the chance of going into surgery and being operated on, knowing there would be many years of surgeries ahead of her. If she went, at least she went in our arms lovingly. And she only lasted 5 minutes."
In another part of the conversation, Maggie, Tracey, and Susan reflected on their involvement in a legal battle. Susan described it as a "really scary moment" but was determined to "tell God's honest truth."
Maggie chimed in with: "We were the underdogs, and that is the magic of the whole story," while Tracey expressed relief at the outcome: "All the years of fighting then finding out that, yes, that the judge believed us mums and we were right, was such a big sense of relief because we didn't do anything and it wasn't our fault."
Toxic Town is now available to stream on Netflix
