A 9/11 survivor whose photograph became one of the
enduring images of the terrorist attacks has died aged 42
after suffering from stomach cancer.
Marcy Borders became known as the "dust lady" after a
photo showed her covered in dust as she escaped the World
Trade Center during the attacks.
Ms Borders, a mother of two, died on Monday, her family
said on Facebook.
She blamed her cancer on inhaling dust during the attack
and suffered from alcoholism and anxiety in later years.
"I can't believe my sister is gone," her brother Michael
Borders wrote on Facebook. Her cousin John Borders called
her a "hero" and said she had "succumbed to the diseases
that [had] ridden her body since 9/11".
"In addition to losing so many friends, co-workers and
colleagues on and after that tragic day ... the pains from
yesteryear have found a way to resurface," he added. On 11 September 2001, Ms Borders was just one month into
a new job at Bank of America on the 81st floor of the north
tower when the plane hit.
"The building started quaking and swaying. I lost all control,
and I went into a frenzy. I fought my way out of that place,"
she told the Daily Mail in 2011.
Defying instructions from her boss to stay put, she fled
down the stairway and into the lobby of an adjacent building
where she was photographed by Stan Honda.
Mr Honda, a professional photographer, recalled the
moment in a post on Facebook on the 10th anniversary of
the attacks.
"A woman came in completely covered in grey dust. You
could tell she was nicely dressed for work and for a second
she stood in the lobby. I took one shot of her before the
police officer started to direct people up a set of stairs,
thinking it would be safer off the ground level."
Ms Borders, who was from New Jersey, was not aware she
had been photographed until her mother saw the image the
following day and contacted Mr Honda. In the years after the attacks, as her picture became one of
the most iconic images of the day, Ms Borders suffered
from severe depression and drug addiction and lost custody
of her two children.
"I didn't do a day's work in nearly 10 years and by 2011 I
was a complete mess," she told The New York Post in the
same year. "Every time I saw an aircraft, I panicked."
But after a spell in rehab starting in April that year, she
became sober and regained custody. Then in November
2014 she revealed that she had stomach cancer.
Ms Borders believed the cancer was a result of her
experience in 2001. "I definitely believe it because I haven't
had any illnesses," she told US newspaper the New Jersey
Journal. "I don't have high blood pressure ... high
cholesterol, diabetes."
Thousands of people who were at Ground Zero that day
have been since diagnosed with cancer, but medical
officials have not confirmed any link to the attacks.
In 2011, Barack Obama instituted a $2.78bn (£1.77bn) fund
to compensate first responders for health problems related
to the attacks.
Ms Borders' daughter Noelle told the New York Post on
Wednesday her mother "fought an amazing battle".
"Not only is she the 'Dust Lady' but she is my hero and she
will forever live through me," she said.




www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34061442

Saddening

Painful

Sad that she didn't live long after surviving that attack.
The cancer might be unrelated to that attack however.

So sad! May she Rest In Peace. Amen

thorpido:
Sad that she didn't live long after surviving that attack.
The cancer might be unrelated to that attack however.

I don't think so, Three firefighter died of cancer in the same day.

passionate88:
I don't think so, Three firefighter died of cancer in the same day.

It's possible.That crash would have come with carcinogenic substances.