@dailymirror: I walked down to the Ground Zero memorial last week to pay my respects to those killed on 9/11. When I’m in New York, I always take a few minutes to see the names of victims I’ve reported on: among them firefighter Gary Geidel, father-to-be Daniel Lee, and fire chaplain Mychal Judge. But this time it felt very different. For the first time I was visiting with a rare incurable heart condition that doctors believe was brought on by the toxic dust I breathed in while walking on these very streets back in September 2001. I’m now registered as a ‘responder’ in the official World Trade Center Health Programme. The morning after the Twin Towers collapsed, I wrote in the Daily Mirror: “Ash lay so thick on the pavements that city workers were shovelling it like snow. “I could still taste the bitter acrid smoke in my mouth. It was like a volcano had erupted in the centre of Manhattan.”

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Friday 11 September 2026 13:46:21 GMT