The state is providing free thyroid screenings to a specific group of Hudson Valley heroes following a report that found thyroid cancer to be one of the top-five cancers afflicting Sept. 11, 2001 first responders.

"I did know that those that responded to 9/11 were susceptible to different types of cancers, you know breathing in the toxic air down there," says Sgt. Michael Hagan, Westchester's PBA president.

What he didn't know, he says, is that one of those was thyroid cancer. 

Hagan was among several dozen first responders who received ultrasound screenings at the county's police academy Thursday afternoon.

"It gives you the peace of mind, or it gives us the information, the early detection information, so that we can go get treatment," Hagan says.

Marilyn Caldiero-Martinucci, the president of Heart Scan Services, says New York's City Council has granted money for its own screenings. This year, for the first time, state Sen. Terrance Murphy has secured grant money for screenings in the Hudson Valley.

"Fortunately, but unfortunately, there have been some people here today, that I believe we might have saved their life," Murphy says.

Murphy says there will be more screenings across the Hudson Valley in the coming months.