Woman From Iconic 9/11 Photograph Succumbs to Cancer

A woman...whose haunting image was published of her covered in dust and ash after the 9/11 attacks has passed away. 42 year-old Marcy Borders passed away after a yearlong battle with stomach cancer, according to her family.

She became known to some as the 'Dust Lady'.

Borders had just started her new job at Bank of America in Manhattan on September 11, 2001 when the first plane hit the North Tower. Instead of staying at her desk as ordered, she fled from the building and into the street. She was pulled by a stranger into a building lobby just as the North Tower collapsed. At that moment a photographer captured her face in the iconic photo that has since been seen around the world.

Sadly, her life spiraled downward in the years ­after that fateful day, as she battled severe depression and became addicted to drugs. She claims she didn't work for ten years and panicked anytime she saw a plane. She eventually lost custody of her two kids and checked into rehab in April 2011. She got sober and eventually ­regained custody.

In a November interview with The Jersey Journal, she revealed she’d recently been diagnosed with stomach cancer. Borders said she was scheduled to have surgery in December, followed by radiation and chemotherapy. Borders often wondered if her illness could be related to what she endured on September 11.