Kriti Mehrotra
As a limited drama chronicling one of the UK’s biggest environmental scandals, Netflix’s ‘Toxic Town’ gives us a poignant insight into the real-life struggles of the people and mothers of Corby in Northamptonshire, England. It focuses on how the latter ventured into a David and Goliath battle for justice upon learning that it was the city’s neglect that resulted in their kids being born with deformities. One such mother is Tracey Taylor, but she sadly wasn’t even included in the trial since her firstborn had sadly passed away from her condition. Nevertheless, to move on from it all while still keeping her daughter’s memories alive with the help of her husband and other children, she still testified.
After Leading a Nearly Idyllic Life, Tracey and Mark Taylor Faced Unimaginable Heartbreak in 1996
It was back when Tracey Taylor was merely 17 that she first came across Mark Taylor, only for them to fall so head over heels in love they soon became an official couple. Therefore, they quickly started to plan their future together and ended up tying the knot in a beautiful, cozy ceremony in December 1994. At that time, while Mark was working a corporate job, his wife was serving as an accountant at a company by the name of Euramax in Corby, which was right near a former steelwork plant that was being cleaned up for redevelopment. She had no idea at the time that the dust floating around because of this was full of toxins. Thus, when Tracey found out they were pregnant with their first child in 1995, she was absolutely over the moon.
Tracey dedicated every sense of her being to her marriage and her work to give their child a good life. But alas, things turned upside down not long after she went into labor in the summer of 1996 and was admitted to the nearby Kettering General Hospital. The midwife actually sent her husband home since they were expecting it to be a long delivery, but the baby decided to come out fast, so Mark barely made it to see his daughter, Shelby Anne, being born. It was moments later that everything went haywire as the Taylors noticed their newborn had a malformed ear, and then suddenly Tracey started having a hemorrhage.
Tracey lost so much blood that the chances of her recovering were extremely low, yet she thankfully made it out okay. Little did she know that mere hours after she would wake up four days later, she would lose Shelby. The little girl was born with not only a malformed ear but also two heart chambers (instead of four) and a myriad of kidney issues, so her blood was being pumped to her livers instead of her heart. The new parents had two options: take her off life support or have her undergo major surgeries from where she also only had a 10% chance of survival. They chose the first option with the sentiment that if she were okay in a few hours, they would go ahead with the extreme measure operations, but she sadly passed away after just five minutes. Shelby was just 4 days old.
Tracey and Mark Taylor Are Proud Parents of Three Today
Losing Shelby Anne at just four days old shattered Tracey and Mark’s hearts in a way they never could have imagined, but they were still able to come together in their grief, and it made them stronger than ever before. The former did blame herself for a long while, so when she found out she was expecting again – twin boys – not long after, she was terrified of losing them too. Thankfully, though, with the unwavering support of her loving husband as well as caring parents, she was able to gradually enjoy the true joys of motherhood, albeit it was months after she gave birth. Her and Mark’s twin boys, Brandon and Callum, were born perfectly healthy and are now 27.
It was while they were mere toddlers that Tracey learned how Corby’s council was mis-administrating toxic waste thanks to a Sunday Times report and how that could have likely caused Shelby’s conditions. After all, while reports suggested that most kids affected by these toxins while in the womb had limb differences, there was the undeniable fact she worked right next to a toxic site throughout her first pregnancy. We specify first because she quit her job to focus on her family upon becoming pregnant again, and she welcomed another perfectly healthy boy, Dominic, five years later.
Since then, Tracey and Mark have seemingly done their best to give their kids the best possible life, all the while keeping the memories of Shelby Anne alive in their hearts. She was and always will be their firstborn even if she isn’t with them anymore, which is just part of why Tracey didn’t hesitate to testify against Corby’s council when the matter went to court in 2009. It took over a decade for the mothers of Corby to achieve justice, but they were able to do what they had set out to, and Tracey remains proud of her involvement in it to this day. Coming to her and her family’s current standing, her husband, her two 27-year-olds, and her 23-year-old all prefer to stay away from the limelight these days, yet it does appear as if they all still reside close together in her native Kettering.
Read More: Maggie and Derek Mahon: Where are the Corby Residents Now?
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