Good Luck Tonight Kid
"U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) stands with Ceasar Borja Jr. (C), son of retired NYPD officer Ceasar Borja and ironworker John Sferazo (R, with cameraphone) at an event promoting federal funding to assist in healthcare for workers injured in the cleanup after the attacks of September 11, 2001, during a news conference at the World Trade Center site, in New York, January 22, 2007"
"(CBS) NEW YORK The son of a 9/11 first responder who is in dire need of a lung transplant will have a front-row seat at the State of the Union address. He's going to Washington as a special guest of Sen. Hillary Clinton to raise awareness about his father's illness, which is believed to be a direct result of the toxic air on the tragic day."
"I want to say to President Bush not to forget the World Trade Center victims. They are heroes, and they should be treated as such," Ceasar Borja Jr. told CBS 2. Borja says his critically ill father will be with him in spirit tomorrow when he attends the President's State of the Union speech. The 21-year-old college student will be wearing his NYPD father's uniform coat, his watch, and his pants.
"I'm representing him. I'm representing all the other heroes so I feel that it's fitting that I wear what they wear," he said.
Borja Sr. is a retired NYPD officer and was a First Responder on September 11. He's now in the intensive care unit of Mt. Sinai Hospital awaiting a lung transplant because he suffers from pulmonary fibrosis -- a disease doctors believe he got from working at Ground Zero after the attack.
Borja Jr. wants Bush to allocate more money to treat the medical needs of 9/11 first responders.
"I want him to see a boy that represents New York City, a victim of everything that's happened following 9/11," he said.
The Hunter College journalism student will accompany Sen. Clinton, who was with him today as he spoke at Ground Zero to explain the need for federal funds for victims like his father. "It's really painful for me to be here so close to where my father contracted this disease and I am being strong for my family, for my friends, for my father -- but it is hard. That is why i need the help of the government," he told the crowd.
Other 9/11 responders who have related diseases will also be in the audience for President Bush's speech. Borja Jr. says he also wants to raise awareness about the need for organ donors.
Doctors say his father -- and other first responders with lung diseases -- won't survive without transplants.
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