9/11 'Dust Lady' Marcy Borders dies at 42

The American bank worker and mother of two who became known as the Dust Lady after surviving the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has died following a long battle with stomach cancer.

Marcy Borders, 42, was diagnosed with cancer in August2014, and always wondered if it was related to Sept. 11, when she was covered in dust whileescaping the Twin Towers, according to the Jersey Journal.

"Did this thing ignite cancer cells in me?'" she askedduring an interview with the Journal last year."I definitely believe it because I haven't had any illnesses. I don't have high blood pressure ... high cholesterol, diabetes."

Borders also said she was struggling to pay more than $200,000 in medical bills.

The photo of her distraught statebecame an iconic reminder of Sept. 11.

"I can't believe my sister is gone," her brother, Michael Borders, posted on Facebooklate Monday night.

"We lost our very own hero," her cousin, ElnardoBorders, said in another post."My emotions are all over the place right now."

Borders, from Bayonne, N.J.,was a 28-year-oldBank of America employeewhen shewas working on the 81st floor of the World Trade Center at the time the plane slammed into the building.

She told the Journal the trauma had sent her into a decade of depression, alcohol and drug abuse.

After attending rehab in 2011,Borders had stayed sober and wasplanningto start workon a local candidate's run for mayorwhen she was diagnosed with cancer.