Disgraceful
his treatment that he paid for two giant advertising billboards to plead: “Add Kidney Disease for 9/11 Rescue Workers” with a photo of the burning towers and one of him with his three kids.
Having first fallen ill nine years ago, he spent three weeks at the renowned Mayo Clinic in Minnesota earlier this summer as they tried to work out what was wrong with him.
Mystified medics have named the disease monotypic atypical anti-GBM nephritis, which has left his kidneys working at just 45 per cent capacity.
Mike, who can no longer work, said: “I have been urinating blood. And every time I pee I think of 9/11. All I want is to be treated fairly.
“They won’t recognise that my illness is connected to 9/11. But I am 100 per cent convinced that it is.”
There is a special fund to help Ground Zero workers who developed health problems, but his illness is not covered.
He said: “I don’t want to be a millionaire – I just want the future to be secure for my children.”
He has now launched a website, DoRightByMike.com, in his bid to get help for those left with kidney diseases. WITH the names of innocent 9/11 victims behind them, a group of shameless Brits pose for pictures alongside a blow-up sex doll at the memorial to the tragedy.
The disgraceful scenes in New York sparked fury among relatives of the almost 3,000 people who died in the devastating attack by Islamic terrorists 15 years ago today.
A police officer finally asked the men, believed to be bankers from London on a stag do, to leave the area after their shocking behaviour on Friday. They had been leaning over the plinth bearing the names of those killed while holding the doll.
Disgusting
Rosanne Hughes, who lost husband Thomas, 46, when two hijacked passenger jets smashed into the Twin Towers in 2001, told of her anger.
The 61- year- old of the New Jersey 9/ 11 Memorial Foundation said: “I’m speechless. I don’t even have any words for that. That’s a disgrace.
“That is sacred ground, I lost my husband and I don’t even know what to say. It’s disgusting.
“It’s disgraceful to take selfies there, laughing and smiling when they haven’t lived the life we’ve lived for 15 years and the people we’ve lost.
“If I came face to face with them I’d say, ‘Shame on you. You have no clue what those families have gone through and to be that disrespectful.’” New Yorker Mike Opelka, 57, was at the memorial as the group carried out their shameful antics.
He said: “I don’t understand why people are taking smiling selfies at a mass grave because that’s what this was. Underneath us were so many thousands of bodies.”
Sarah Joiner, 43, who was visiting from Austin, Texas, added: “It is a little bit obnoxious when there is a lot of laughter and selfies going on here.
“It is a bit disrespectful. This is a cemetery and it needs to be treated as such.” Chief of the 9/11 memorial and museum Michael Frazier said: “What’s disturbing is that these people find it appropriate to blatantly disrespect this place made sacred by the murder of 3,000 innocent people. At any time this would be enraging and offensive, we are days away from commemorating the 15th anniversary of 9/11. This is disgusting.”
Michael said there are no plans for extra measures to be introduced to prevent this type of behaviour. He added: “People should have an inherent sense of how to act.”
One of the Brits, believed to be the groom, said the group was “just a bachelor party”. He then became defensive and would only answer questions with “no comment”.
Heroes
Barack Obama will mark today’s anniversary by observing a moment of silence in the White House this morning before delivering remarks at a memorial service in the Pentagon, where 184 people were killed by a hijacked plane.
The president paid tribute to all the victims during his weekly radio address. Vowing not to let terrorism win, he said: “Americans will never give in to fear. We’re still the America of heroes.”
New York Police Department marked 9/11 with a parade to honour its 23 officers killed at the World Trade Center and the 99 who died of injuries or illness later.