Mid Ulster father Hugh McCloy demands cancer investigation amid fears over industrial pollution

A DAD whose little girl was diagnosed with a fast-growing blood and bone marrow cancer at three has hit out at huge gaps in pollution monitoring in their heavily industrialised rural community.

Mid Ulster industry has long been celebrated for outputs that garnered £6.5 billion in sales in 2025, putting it in the top three Northern Ireland council areas in terms of production value.

It is home to dozens of quarries, scores of intensive farms, meat factories and industrial processing plants, which combined export 75% of what they make.

But Hugh McCloy fears this “almost city-type industry and village-type environmental monitoring” has created a perfect storm in which the environment is making children, including his own, sick amid little to no oversight of potential causes.

He said: “If we were speaking about Mid Ulster for its industry, we would be shaking each other's hands and patting each other's backs.

“That industry comes at a cost.”

‘Kill the leukemia’

The worried Draperstown man told the Courier his daughter Freda, now seven, is one of three local children given a cancer diagnosis within weeks of each other in summer 2023.

He described the eight weeks after his daughter’s diagnosis and subsequent treatment at Belfast Children’s Hospital that August as “chaos”.

“Freda and her grandfather were diagnosed half an hour apart. He already had stomach cancer and had his stomach out,” Hugh explained.

“They were both the same sort of colour. He went to Altnagelvin the night before and I took her in the morning and within a half an hour both of them were diagnosed.

“He was terminal and she was on a blue light [ambulance] down to Belfast [where]... they hit them as hard as they can to try and kill the leukemia or stop it in its tracks.

“If it doesn't work in that first period, you could be in serious trouble,” he added.

“For Freda, her first period wasn't great and she had to go to a harder regimen.”

Cancer cluster?

It was only after spending months at the Belfast Children’s Hospital, where everyone in Northern Ireland diagnosed with cancer up to age 16 is treated, that Hugh found a lot of families from Mid Ulster had been impacted by childhood cancers.

“As time went on it became very noticeable where the kids were coming from,” he said.

“Around Christmas 2024-2025, I began to see a trend of kids from Mid Ulster.”

Since July 2023, Hugh says he has learned of at least 10 boys and seven girls in the area from Dungannon to Draperstown and right to the Lough Neagh shore, that have been diagnosed with a range of cancer types, including acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which his daughter had.

“There could be more,” Hugh added.

The concerned dad-of-two also contacted the Cancer Registry, Chief Medical Officer, Public Health Agency and Department of Health to outline his concerns.

The Public Health Agency says its cluster analysis of 2018 to 2022 incidences of childhood cancer by the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry found “that childhood cancers in and within the Mid Ulster area were entirely consistent with the rates across Northern Ireland”.

Its spokesperson said they have “committed to keeping data under review and as validated data become available, further analysis will be carried out”.

They also cautioned that looking at “information in isolation, without the full detail or out of context, can lead to erroneous conclusions being drawn” but said it will “meet any family who has concerns regarding this issue”.

‘Check the cases’

Despite the PHA’s assertions, Hugh’s concerns remain. He said: “They hadn’t analysed the years the children got sick… [and said] there was nothing wrong with the environment - it hadn’t changed. Lough Neagh went green.

“If you drive around here you'll see the sand [in the air]... there’s the potential for air pollution.”

He also highlighted how Mid Ulster businesses hold a total of 113 pollution permits, which are reserved for the most polluting enterprises, compared to 25 in Belfast.

Now Mr McCloy is calling for an independent examination of cancer data he fears authorities will take years to disseminate - and extended monitoring of air, water and soil pollution.

“Check the cases, the ages, the genders, where the people live and if there is anything in the environment, or any environmental data - have a proper look at it,” he said.

“They can’t rule one [a cluster] out because they haven't even looked at the cases, never mind the environmental data.”

Drinking water reports for the McCloy’s home, which is partly fed from Lough Neagh, found nothing untoward, however air pollution data for Mid Ulster is limited to mobile tests for nitrogen dioxide in a handful of towns and villages.

The council area does not hold a single continuous air quality monitor to check for cancer-causing particles like PM2.5 or PM10s, or other harmful pollutants like ammonia, despite the area having the highest levels of ammonia pollution in NI.

Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs minister, Andrew Muir, said responsibility for air quality assessment is split between his department and councils, which receive 100% of the costs for installing air quality monitors.

He added: “My department is strengthening Northern Ireland's legal air quality standards in respect to particulate matter, including currently preparing and bringing forward revised regulations.

“This will bring us in line with the tightening air quality standards across the UK and align with more up-to-date international guidance. These measures will help improve air quality, protect public health and create a cleaner, healthier environment for current and future generations.”

Independent review

Hugh is calling for an independent review into cancer statistics in Mid Ulster and potential environmental causes like the review into cervical screening in the Southern Trust. Professor Frank Atherton “found the method used wasn't sensitive enough to identify if there was harm done, or not”.

The Draperstown man is concerned the methods used to identify clusters were also not sensitive enough, although the PHA insists it used “recognised methods applied by cancer registries across the UK”.

Mr McCloy’s request follows a recent meeting with Health Minister Robbie Butler and representatives for the PHA, Belfast Trust and NICR, which Mid Ulster MLA Patsy McGlone said didn’t deliver “much progress”.

The SDLP politician said it is his party’s view that “given the slow progress on the matter to date… a fresh set of experienced eyes needs to look at this”.

“Concern about public health has to be uppermost, particularly if spikes in cancer are shown, then that must be fully investigated.”

He added that it’s “important to examine if there are any particular causes of the cancers in their children - the Department owes that much to the public.”

Mid Ulster District Council has been contacted. The Department of Health declined to comment.