As a newly trained firefighter, Minogue was taking his first vacation day when he saw Flight 11 crash into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. He grabbed his uniform and told his wife, “I’m going to work. I’m not sure when I’ll be back.” 

Minogue watched the towers fall as he drove along Grand Central Parkway. After arriving at the firehouse in Corona, Queens, Minogue was dispatched to Ground Zero. When his company got to the Twin Towers, “Everything just stopped in time. We walked through the glass and we saw the pit. We saw the World Trade Center.” 

Minogue said it was like a scene from a movie, with so much ash falling that it was almost black. He noticed how bizarre the rest of his company looked, 

“They were just covered, like somebody opened a bag of flour and dropped it on them,” he said.“Their eyelids were caked with it.” 

Three days later, Minogue’s role with the fire department changed. With 343 firefighters lost on September 11th, they needed someone to play taps, the 35 second song played by a single trumpet at the end of service member’s funerals. 

 “So, I would still go to work, then I would go to a funeral to play taps. Sometimes two, sometimes three funerals a day. In the end, it got so busy I was pretty much offline,” Minogue said. 

With only one other bugler in the NYFD, Minogue played taps at around 170 9/11 memorial services. Yet, each song was never the same.

“I played it different for everybody, because everybody is unique,” he said.“I think everybody needed a different song. Ya know, for me, it’s a gift that I could give back.”

Minogue kept playing taps as a fire department lieutenant, but in 2006 he developed a cough. At age 46, Minogue developed stage four throat cancer and high-grade bladder cancer from exposure to the 9/11 ash and debris.

 “Everything I had done with the ceremonial unit was over, they had to run without me,” he said. The illnesses forced Minogue to retire and leave the fire department. 

As of September 2021, over 200 active and retired NYC firefighters have died of illnesses linked to 9/11 according to the Scientific American. Even more have developed cancer and survived, including Minogue, who said it was because of his strong attitude.

“Two doctors, separately, would call me the poster boy,” he said. “My friend Mark and I had radiation burns and our faces were all red, but we were always smiling and laughing.” 

Many of Minogue’s friends and colleagues also deal with the lasting health effects of being at Ground Zero. The destruction of the Twin Towers created an ash of computers, concrete, and pipes that first responders inhaled. In 2019, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute published a study finding that 9/11 first responders are 25% more likely to develop prostate cancer, 41% more likely to develop Leukemia, and two times more likely to develop thyroid cancer compared to other people. 

On this 20th anniversary of 9/11, Minogue is still playing taps on his trumpet, but said he doesn’t have enough breath to hold the last note. Despite all of his health problems, he said he would still go back and do the same thing again. 

“When you’re on this earth, you have to do the best you can for others, without asking anything in return,” he said. “That’s it.”

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Dozens of activists gathered at City Hall yesterday to support city council members trying to stop poisonous pesticides from sickening New Yorkers. They held signs that read, ‘Don’t Spray, No Way ’ and chanted, “Parks are for playing, not for cancer spraying.” 

City Council members Ben Kallos of District 5, who represents the Upper East Side and Carlina Rivera of District 2, which includes the East Village and Gramercy Park, are sponsoring a bill to prevent city agencies from using poisonous pesticides in New York City Parks.

The issue was brought to the attention of Kallos by a kindergarten class who had been researching toxic pesticides in the food served at their school cafeteria. 

“I learned something in kindergarten,” he said. “I learned that parks should be for playing, not for pesticides.” 

In a report by NYC Agencies, the city’s most heavily used herbicide is glyphosate which is branded and sold as Roundup. Regular exposure to this pesticide poses a significant risk in developing severe kidney damage and increases the likelihood of developing certain types of cancers. Despite a slight decline in the use of the toxin since 2013, in 2018, an estimate of 41% of herbicides used in New York City still contained glyphosate. The toxin is used to kill weeds in the park.

“Our goal is to ban this [glyphosate]. Straight and simple,” Kallos said.

Savitri D is the Director of Reverend Billy and The Church of Stop Shopping, a radical performance group based in New York City. She and many volunteers begun filing freedom of information requests to see where glyphosate was being sprayed around New York City and mapped thousands of glyphosates spraying events within the city. 

 “Glyphosate is everywhere,” D said. “We know roundup is the cheapest way to kill a weed, and we know there is collateral damage. We also know it is applied more in black and brown neighborhoods and people in those same communities have less access to wellness and medical care.” 

With the help of volunteers, Savitri D, a director at Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir, mapped out where glyphosates where sprayed around New York City. Photo by Bessie Liu.

 According to a report by The Black Institute, a non profit organization that advocates for people of color, estimates that more than 500 gallons of glyphosate was sprayed in the five boroughs of New York City in 2016 and mostly in communities populated by low-income earners and people of color. 

 “Communities of color and low-income neighborhoods are disproportionately impacted by this chemical, particularly young children who happen to use this park.” said Dan Hogle, a campaign organizer for the Black Institute. “Speaker Corey Johnson needs to call this bill to the floor and ban it once and for all.” 

 If the bill, which has been pending since April,  is successfully passed, city agencies must move to use biological pesticides, which are known to be less toxic and more effective than synthetic pesticides. 

 “There are alternatives out there. Smart, better healthier alternatives, and the time is now,” Councilwoman Carlina Rivera said. “We are going to follow in Chicago’s footsteps by embracing alternative, biological pesticides. Those are important alternatives because they derive from naturally occurring substances and are significantly less toxic and break down more quickly in the environment and are often more effective in killing pests.”

 With the support of 34 other Council colleagues, Kallos and Rivera have urged Mayor Bill de Blasio to place a suspension on the spraying of toxic pesticides in New York City until alternative procedures can be arranged.

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by Ben Shapiro

None of the remaining spectators could quite get the facts straight. “She is from Sweden,” a man said. “No, born and raised in Scotland,” another person chimed in. “I think she is the first person to run the marathon with this rare disease,” someone said hesitantly. The people gathered late last night at the finish line of the 2014 TCS New York City Marathon did not know the story behind Gena Wilson’s life, but she was part of their team, and they were going to wait for her to finish the race.

Originally from South Carolina and now living in Glasgow, Scotland, Gena Wilson was one of the last people to finish the NYC marathon yesterday. Although, it was not her country of residence that made Gena a big hit at the race’s finish line in Central Park, but rather that she has survived two bouts of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Her most recent battle came in 2013, where doctors told her family to get on the first plane to Scotland because they though she was not going to live much longer.

“The cancer had come back in the form of a brain tumor,” said Wilson, 47, who was first diagnosed with cancer in 2011. “I really was not supposed to live.”

Wilson, who works at a Christian mission organization in Glasgow, credits god for keeping her alive. It is the only way she can come to terms with how she was able to beat cancer twice, and come out of the process strong enough to complete a marathon. Along with working for a mission, Wilson, who now has completed her second marathon, uses these events to share her story, and inform people of the power of faith.

“The reason why I wanted to run is because, well, god healed me,” said Wilson. “My main thing is to tell the world that oh my goodness, I shouldn’t be here, but look what an amazing god who controls everything did for me, once again.”

On top of trying spreading her religion, Wilson also ran the New York City Marathon in order to raise money to help fight cancer. Wilson was part of Team in Training, an organization sponsored by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society that trains people to complete endurance competitions, and in return the participants raise money for cancer research. For Sunday’s marathon, the group began training five months in advance, following a strict fitness regiment that included meeting twice a week for team conditioning sessions. Living in Scotland, Wilson did not have the ability to train with her teammates, but she was able to find people willing to help.

“I was just doing my own walking plan,” said Wilson. “It was hard, but there were so many people that were such a blessing. Tons of people walked with me.”

Despite not preparing with Team in Training, Wilson was mobbed with hugs and high fives from coaches and members of the team when she finished the race around 8:30 p.m., good for a time of 9 hours, 40 minutes, and 47 seconds. Wilson appreciated their support during and after the race, but she was truly grateful for her family whom she knows she would not have been able to complete the New York City Marathon without.

“I couldn’t have made it without my mom and sister,” said Wilson, who was joined by the two for the last few miles of the race. “My mom and sister were the ones who came up here, spent the week, and just did everything for me.”

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Kobe is an 11-year-old Shiba Inu who about two years ago developed glaucoma, gradually causing him to go blind. It was a serious condition and eventually his medications stopped working, leaving him in pain. He recently had surgery that removed parts of his eyes that are now stitched shut. He is completely reliant on the love and guidance of his family.

His owners were left with the choice to either pay for the surgery or eventually have him put down. Rather than give up on Kobe, they paid over $2,000 to save him.

Some pet owners, like Kobe’s, will do whatever it takes to keep their beloved animals alive. They will spare no expense or inconvenience. To them, their pet is a treasured member of the family, no matter their condition.

Judy Kule, 52, from Wantagh, LI, and her family are dog lovers who have gone to great lengths to care for their disabled dogs, including Kobe, and Zeus, their previous dog. Zeus developed cancer when he was four years old and had a leg amputated.

“They’re like our children and we’re just going to do what we would do for any one of our children,” Kule said.

For many, the costs of surgery can be a deal breaker when deciding whether or not to provide the utmost care for sick pets.

Over the past 12 years, the Kules have spent over $8,000 in medications and surgeries for their pets and spent countless hours caring for them as they battled illnesses.

The most difficult aspect isn’t the costs, but how people look at their pets as if they’ve been mutilated, Kule said.

“The hardest thing about having disabled dogs, whether it be a blind dog or a dog with three legs, its actually not taking care of them, its other peoples reactions,” she said.

Kobe, 11, is a Shiba Inu recovering from eye surgery that will relieve the pain he's been experiencing due to his glaucoma. Photo by Nicole Guzzardi

People look at disabled dogs and feel sorry for them or don’t understand the point of keeping them, she said.

“The dogs are like our children,” Kule said. “We wouldn’t send our child to a home because they turned blind.”

Besides being completely blind now, Kobe will lead a normal, healthy life. In fact, once he recovers from the surgery, he will be in far less pain and should return to being a playful dog, she said.

“He still has a lot of life in him,” Kule said.

Mallory Kerley, 25, the Kules’ daughter, is the media coordinator at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).

Kerley said that despite common misconceptions about disabled pets, they actually get adopted rather quickly through ASPCA’s New York City adoption center.

“It depends on the type of disability, but if there’s a dog that comes to our shelter with three legs, or say it’s missing an eye, they actually get a lot more sympathy from potential adopters,” she said.

The Kule family’s first experience caring for a disabled pet was when their dog Zeus, a greyhound mix, developed cancer in his leg in 2000.

Kerley said as soon as the vet said the surgery might save his life, they knew it was the way to go.

The family decided to have Zeus’ cancer-ridden leg amputated in hopes to prolong his life.

While he recovered, Kule would bundle up with blankets and sleep with Zeus on the kitchen floor, because he couldn’t make it up and down stairs, she said.

Despite the surgery, Zeus died about four months later because the cancer had already spread, Kerley said.

“We did it to save his life, even though it didn’t work,” Kule said.

With Zeus, even the best medical care could not save his life. It is cases like this that petMD.com veterinarian Jennifer Coates sees all the time.

Coates, 41, of Fort Collins, Colo., specializes in end-of life care, like hospice and home euthanasia for animals, she said.

Coates said some people spend tens of thousands of dollars to treat their pets’ life-threatening illnesses, while others might only spend a few hundred, depending on their financial situation and their view about an animal’s role in the society.

“When there is little chance for a pet to have good quality of life no matter who is responsible for its health care, I recommend euthanasia, but if it is a matter of finances only, I try to help the client find a new home for their pet,” she said.

In her practice, the doctors never put down an animal simply due to lack of financial funds, she said.

When asked why many people go to great lengths exhausting time and money, she replied frankly.

“The answer is simple – for love. For many people, pets are family,” she said.

Christy Stewart, 38, from Cocoa, Fla, and her family are proud owners of a deaf Boxer named Pearl.

Pearl, age 4, has been completely deaf since birth, but has a loving owner, Christy Stewart, and family who take great care to make sure she lives a healthy, happy life. Photo by Christy Stewart

Pearl is white, which is rare in Boxers, and has been deaf since birth, Stewart said.

“She was born deaf, and so [the breeder] couldn’t sell her, so they were either going to put her down or send her to a rescue, so we decided we would take care,” she said.

Stewart said she did worry that it might not work out because people told her that it can be difficult to connect with a deaf dog, that they don’t always bond well with people.

The family raised Pearl since puppyhood and kept her around children constantly in hopes that she would be comfortable with them, she said.

“It just evolved and now she’s a wonderful family dog ,” Stewart said. “When the children scream and run around her, it’s almost a good thing. She doesn’t hear it, she doesn’t get crazy excited.”

The hardest part of owning a deaf dog is disciplining, because they cannot hear your commands, so Stewart has come up with gestures to compensate, she said.

“We use a lot of hand signals, but she’s a smart dog, so if she doesn’t want to listen she just won’t make eye contact,” she said.

For both the Stewarts and Kules, raising a dog with special needs isn’t at all a chore.

“We would do anything for any of our pets, to keep them healthy, to keep them pain free, to make them just happy dogs,” Kule said.

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