Dust Lady of Famous 9/11 Photograph Dies at 42

Marcy Borders has been immortalised by the photograph that was snapped during the September 11 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center.

She has now died of stomach cancer at the age of 42 years, according to hngn.

A member of the Borders family announced her death Tuesday on Facebook.

Having been diagnosed with stomach cancer when she was 41 years August 2014, she had been undergoing a number of treatments.

She got the moniker of "dust lady" from the 9/11 photo, which was shot by Agence France-Presse photographer Stan Honda. The picture, showing her covered in ash and staring in horror and bewilderment at the WTC south tower that had fallen, became viral.

Her cancer was due to the inhalation of dust during the attack, after which she underwent alcoholism and anxiety in later years, according to bbc.

"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.

She had been a legal assistant for Bank of America, whose office was on the 81st floor of World Trade Center 1. But she had been on the job just for a month. She had been 28 years at the time. She managed to come down the stairwell up to the street and walk out into the sidewalk, just before the south tower started to collapse.

Even when the other tower began to fall, a stranger dragged her into a neighboring building, while the other tower collapsed. That was when Stan Honda snapped the iconic photograph that became viral.