The never-ending cloud hanging over families
A New Zealand mother hopes to finally learn if her children’s unexplained illnesses are caused by her father’s military service during a nuclear protest.
Donna Weir’s father served in the navy in 1973 when Prime Minister Norman Kirk sent two frigates and 500 men on a seaborne protest against nuclear testing at a French Polynesian atoll. It was at Mururoa that Allan Hamilton was exposed to harmful ionising-radiation while observing two nuclear explosions from on board the HMS Canterbury.
Weir and her two children are joining an Otago University study that hopes to establish whether the genetic transfer of illnesses is related to exposure to nuclear radiation.
The Mururoa Nuclear Veterans Group, which was established in 2013 to press the Government to help families with nuclear-related illnesses, has 135 members who served at the protest.
Of those people, 56 have children or grandchildren with unexplained medical conditions.
Kirk promised Hamilton, now 71, he would be looked after if anything went wrong. But Hamilton is now filled with guilt over his service as radiation-related diseases appear to have filtered down through the generations.
Although the cost of his 11-year battle with cancer is covered by Veterans Affairs, the plight of his descendants is not.
Hamilton never spoke of his time in the navy and Weir did not know of his exploits at Mururoa until both her children started experiencing chronic medical problems. She also had several miscarriages.
Her eldest child, Hayley, 11, has had ongoing problems with her stomach and has required surgery.
Son Zac, 7, has several complications, including hyperdontia, ocular motor apraxia and speech disorder. These affect the development of his teeth and his ability to control eye movement.
‘‘Basically, the wiring in his brain is all over the place,’’ Weir said. ‘‘He learned to walk with a walking frame because his ankles were like spaghetti.’’
Zac has been working with a speech specialist for nearly half a decade.
Doctors said the problems were caused by genetic defects but they refused to confirm it was the result of inherited radiation exposure.
Weir, who was born after 1973, said there was no evidence of genetic problems in her or her husband’s family. They have spent close to $50,000 trying to fix their children’s health problems.
Weir’s two siblings have fit and healthy children. Both were born before their father went to Mururoa.
The Balclutha woman knew of other Mururoa descendants who had children with severe physical deformities, such as six fingers and inverted rib cages.
She believed the Government should cover the treatment of veterans’ families who were battling illnesses because of their relatives’ service. ‘‘No-one is asking for a payout. But [veterans and families] have been treated badly by the New Zealand Government,’’ she said.
Mururoa Nuclear Veterans Group president Gavin Smith wanted all veterans and their families to be part of the university’s study. However, without a full list of those who served on the frigates, the group needed to get in touch with crew, their widows or their families.
Smith, 68, who also served on HMS Canterbury, said veterans felt guilty they had passed their suffering down the family tree, and many would have refused to take part in the protest had they known the perils of radiation in the 1970s.
Otago University associate professor David McBride is conducting the first medical testing of veterans’ children and grandchildren.
‘‘The study will be very comprehensive with interviews, a health questionnaire and genetic testing all being looked at,’’ he said. ‘‘We are asking for any New Zealand veterans who served in nuclear theatres to contact us.’’