A number of the heroic firefighters who saved lives during the Grenfell Tower fire have since been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

According to an investigation by the Mirror, up to a dozen of firefighters who responded to the 2017 fire are suffering with rare cancers including digestive cancers and leukaemia, because of being exposed to contaminants in the fire.

Strokes, heart disease and kidney failure are also understood to have been recorded among the heroes.

A fire service source told The Mirror: “We are expecting some really depressing data to be revealed soon. It’s shocking.”

The Grenfel fire which claimed the lives of 72 men, women and children on June 14 2017, was one of the deadliest blazes since the Second World War with new details emerging regularly.

Riccardo la Torre, Fire Brigades Union national official, said: “When workers on the front line are tackling fires to save lives and property, like all those who attended Grenfell, they need every protection possible from toxic health risks,”

“This vital research proves that firefighters are suffering and dying from cancer, strokes, heart disease, and mental ill health as a result of going to work and protecting the public,”

“We now know that firefighters are exposed to health and life-threatening contaminants as a result of their occupation, and certainly would have been at an incident the size and scale of the Grenfell Tower Fire,”

“Due to this inaction by the government and fire bosses, the Fire Brigades Union is commissioning further research to help us demand proper protection and support for our members who attended Grenfell, and for firefighters all over the UK.”