"It was as if my soul had collapsed with the towers," the woman in the famous 9/11 photograph lived with the haunting memories for 10 years and had to fight cancer in the last year of her life.

Marcy Borders' famous photo. Photo: AFP

On September 11, 2001, Marcy Borders was a paralegal working on the 81st floor of One World Trade Center. When American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the building, crashing several floors above her office, she ran down the street and survived.

"I was cleaning my desk to get ready for work when the plane hit. The building started shaking. I was out of control and panicking. I tried to get out of there," she said.

"Hundreds of people were trying to get out. I thought we were going to die. I'm glad I had the strength to get out. There were a lot of people injured, it was a horrible scene," Borders said.

A stranger pulled her into a nearby hallway, where AFP photographer Stan Honda snapped her picture: her face blank, her body covered in ash. The image was later named one of Time magazine's 25 most powerful photographs. The world came to know Borders as "the dust lady."

Obsess

The famous photo also seemed to symbolize the troubles she faced after 9/11. She was haunted by the memory of that morning. She struggled with depression and substance abuse.

"My life was spiraling out of control. I hadn't worked in almost 10 years, and by 2011, I was completely stuck," Borders told the New York Post in June 2011. "Every time I saw a plane, I panicked. If I saw a man on a building, I thought he was going to shoot me."

“It was like my soul collapsed with the towers,” she said. “I started smoking cocaine, because I didn’t want to live anymore.”

After losing custody of her two children, Borders entered rehab in April 2011, eight days before President Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden on television.

"The treatment has helped me sober up, but killing bin Laden was a gift," she said. "I used to lose sleep because of him. I had nightmares that bin Laden bombed my house, but now I'm calm," she said.

Borders left rehab in May 2011, and regained custody of daughter Noelle and son Zay-den.

Marcy Borders and her son in 2011. Photo: Nypost

Fighting disease

Borders was diagnosed with stomach cancer last summer and underwent chemotherapy, according to The Guardian. Borders believes that exposure to dust from the rubble of buildings during 9/11 caused her illness.

"I asked myself, 'Is that going to stimulate the growth of cancer cells in me?' I believe it will, because I don't have any medical conditions. I don't have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes," Borders said.

"You can't be healthy and then suddenly get cancer," she said. Borders died on August 24 at the age of 42.

"My mother fought her battle with the disease. She was not just a 'dust lady', she was a hero and will live in my heart forever," said Borders' daughter, Noelle.

New York City Mayor Bill Di Blasio wrote on his personal Twitter page: "The passing of Marcy Borders reminds us of the tragedy our city endured 14 years ago. New York shares her pain with her family."

"I can't believe my sister is gone," Marcy's sister Michael Borders wrote on Facebook. Marcy's cousin John Borde added that she was a "hero" and that she "unfortunately passed away from the disease that had been in her body since that fateful day of 9/11."

Thousands of people who were present at the scene of the terrorist attacks during and after 9/11, including emergency workers, survivors and local residents, were later diagnosed with cancer.

Multiple studies conducted over the past 14 years have found that many rescue workers and people working downtown at the time of the attack suffered from respiratory illnesses. The Selikoff Center for Occupational Health said last year that at least 1,646 rescue workers had developed cancer.

"I lost so many friends and colleagues during and after that tragic day. The pain of the past that I thought had subsided has now returned," John said.

According to VnExpress