On September 11th 2011 Marcy Borders became an photographic icon as he emerged from the bottom of New York’s World Trade Center after the first plane hit the building.

Covered in dust, squinting and clearly shaken, her haunting image was seem all over the world.

The image was never forgotten and although her and her story was revisited on a few occassions, at the time of her death from cancer in August 2015 she died with piled high medical bills and years of troubles.

Macy has been working for the Bank of America at the time of the attack, she had been there just four weeks.

Macy suffered from mental trauma for 10 years folling the attack, she broke from her long time partner, turned to alcohol and drugs. She was said to have returned to sobriety after learning of the death of Osama Bin Laden.

On August 24, 2015, at just 42, Macy died of stomach cancer, an illness she says she developed from ingesting toxic dust during the terror attack. She once said”I definitely believe it because I haven’t had any illnesses. I don’t have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes.”

She also amounted a debt of $190,000 and had not yet even received surgery she needed! She would have also needed additional chemotherapy. On top of this she said she had trouble filing her prescriptions.

Macy was an icon and she didn’t seem to receive any help. Like many others who may have suffered both mental and physical issues from the terrible attack it seems she was left to fend for herself.

Her image lives on as a testament of that terrible moment but many don’t remember the woman herself.

RIP Macy.