Mary Rooney, 64, learned that her son Phillip had leukemia on the day of her 60th birthday.

The Letterkenny, Co. Donegal-born mother and her Dublin-born husband Patrick, 74, were on their first ever cruise, but their trip was interrupted unexpectedly when they were met by their son Jimmy at the dock in Florida.

Jimmy told them the sad news about Phillip's condition and had already booked their flights back to New York.

From JFK they drove straight to North Shore Hospital on Long Island. Phillip was already undergoing chemotherapy by the time they arrived.

It was a shocking development. There was no history of leukemia in either side of the family.

For Mary the news made no sense. Phillip Rooney was a tall, athletic Irish American master carpenter who worked for the New York City Department of Transportation. He never smoked and he rarely drank, he was a devoted husband and a father of three.

But on September 11, 2001 when he was 38, he was sent with his buddies to Ground Zero as part of the rescue and cleanup operation, and that fateful decision changed his life.

Six years later, in March 2007, Phillip died of acute myeloid leukemia.

Both Mary and Phillip's widow Patricia, 40, believe that the two events are linked and a growing chorus of medical experts shares their view.

"There was never any history of leukemia in my family on either side. There was nothing that was even close to it. For 17 years Phillip had a great job working for the Department of Transportation, great money, with benefits. But when he died that was it," Mary told the Irish Voice.

At the time of his illness Phillip fought for, and was denied, a three quarter pension and compensation for his condition.

However, as time goes on more and more first responders - many of whom are Irish American - have been reporting serious respiratory problems and cancers. The death toll is mounting and medical experts are finally taking note.

"We were just at another funeral on Friday," says Mary. "It was another one of the guys with the very same leukemia. We were at a fundraiser for him in June and he just died last week. His name was Greg Quibel, he was also a city worker like Phillip, and he was just 52. Like Phillip he was sent to Ground Zero the night it happened."

From the beginning the operation at Ground Zero was rough work, and it was non-stop. Phillip was putting in 12-hour shifts for the first two months.

In the weeks that followed the attacks, Philip worked in excess of 300 hours at the site wearing only a paper mask for protection. After a day or two they all stopped even using those.

"Now our family is devastated, we're never going to be the same. Our lives have changed so much," said Mary.

"He was a great son, he worked hard and all he wanted was his little family. All his life he never even took an aspirin for a headache, but by the end he was on 40 pills a day. He had a bad one, he got every side effect you could ever imagine. He was in pain for three years. It was horrendous."

What Phillip saw at Ground Zero working on the bucket line shocked him. His wife Pat, who works full time as a nurse, told the Irish Voice, "He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Body parts, the smell was awful, and he just couldn't believe the two towers had turned into rubble. He was right on the coal face every day from the very beginning."

But Phillip never complained, never brought his work home. He only mentioned how there was dust everywhere, thick chocking dust that made you splutter.

He told Pat that after the first few days the guys stopped wearing facemasks.

Around Christmas in 2003 Phillip started to get sick with flu like symptoms. "It was like a cold, with runny nose and coughing, but it wouldn't go away. The doctors prescribed antibiotics but he still didn't improve. Soon he was losing weight, and losing his appetite too," said Pat.

"One time he was trying to hammer a nail and he realized he didn't have the strength to hold the hammer. That spooked him. He played hockey too, and one day he came home from practice covered in bruises."

Pat told him he would have to go back to the hospital. It was February 10, 2004, the day Mary turned 60.

At home Pat got a message from Phillip's doctor, asking her to come into the hospital right away.

At the back of her mind Pat hoped she was overreacting to the symptoms Phillip was presenting. She hoped it would be something else, something manageable.

"I went to the hospital and I asked the doctor to tell me what Phillip's blood counts were. Then I started crying hysterically," Pat recalled.

"When I got home Phillip was sleeping in bed. His words to me were, 'I think they just need to give me a shot of iron, I hope I get home in time to see the hockey game.' But we were in that hospital for almost two months."

The tests, the transfusions, the excruciatingly painful bone marrow exams took their toll on Phillip. (Leukemia is a cancer in which the bone marrow produces abnormal white blood cells.) Extracting bone marrow and testing the condition of the bone are among the most painful exams in medicine, but Phillip never complained.

When he died of acute myeloid leukemia, after battling the illness for three years, he was just 41.

"We had an unbelievable marriage - he was the male version of me. He was my best friend," Pat said.

"To see him suffering was beyond horrible. He was afraid he was going to die and not be able to raise his children. He could tolerate the pain of the exams like a trooper, he never once complained, he was just afraid about his kids. He would ask God. 'Just give me 10 more years. Just let them get a little bit bigger.'"

The toll has been huge on Phillip's mother Mary. "I think I've aged 20 years. Phillip was not the only one. There's so many families who've had this happen since 9/11," she said.

"If I could I would have taken his pain for him. He went to his grave knowing that everything he had applied for was denied. All he would said to his father and me was 'I just want my kids to be taken care of.'"

Pat Rooney was shocked by how quickly their lives changed. "I can hear my 11-year-old telling his kid sisters not to turn on the lights because Mom has to pay for it. No kid should have to do that. I want people to know that Phillip wanted to help."

Linda Rooney, Phillip's sister, told the Irish Voice, "The unfairness of it enrages me. My brother was at the site as part of his duty as a city employee. It wasn't his choice to be there. "They were unsure of how dangerous the environment really was. That's the part that's really upsetting. They let these young hard working guys in the prime of their lives put their lives on the line."

Rooney's children had their health insurance cancelled on the day Phillip died.

Meanwhile the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, the federal government's response to the health effects of the terrorist attacks of September 11, which would provide for long-term medical monitoring, treatment, compensation, research and coordination, is now in Congress awaiting a hearing.

Says Mary, "We're not giving up hope. We're not trying to bash anybody. We're hoping this new bill will pass and we'll keep going. Phillip wasn't looking for millions. I don't know why the city won't admit the truth."