Drugs, Depression and Fatal Illness: The Story of Marcy Borders, the “Dust Lady” of the 9/11 Attacks

Marcy Borders survived the September 11, 2001 attacks against the Twin Towers and his photo, covered in ash and dust from the World Trade Center, became one of the most emblematic images of the attacks. But the attacks marked the rest of the life of “Lady of the Dust(“Lady of Dust”), as she was known from then until her death from stomach cancer in 2015.

When the terrorist attack took place, Frontières was 28 years old and had just entered a month earlier to work in the Bank of America offices in the floor 81 de la Torre 1. He has just arrived at his work and was about to start the day when the 20 years after the attack of the Twin Towers: images which still mark.

Limits disobeyed an order from his boss, who had asked the bank employees to stay at their posts, and came down the stairs. It saved his life. “The building started to shake and sway. I lost all control. I fought to get out of this place, ”he recalls years later in an interview with the Daily mail.

Once in the street, he encountered a scene of utter devastation. “There were wounded everywhere, it was too much for a witness. I saw people with things sticking out of their bodies covered in blood from head to toe. What I saw was a massacre, and I thought, ‘My God, I’m going to die anyway,’ ”he added.

He continued to walk down the street until he heard a terrible noise, like an explosion. “It looked like a huge bomb had gone off. I had no idea the tower had collapsed, ”he said. A cloud of dust invaded the streets and covered everything.

Borders then took refuge in a neighboring building, where the AFP photographer Stan honda took the famous photo. The woman did not realize that she had been photographed until her mother saw the image the next day.

Post-traumatic stress, depression and addictions

The borders survived, but the horror he witnessed that day took a toll on his life. Suffered post-traumatic stress and deep depression which led her to an addictive consumption of drugs and alcohol. He lost his job and the custody of his children. “Every time I saw an airplane, I felt panic.” I couldn’t take a bus and cross “Bridges, tunnels and metro stations.”

Borders have passed most of the time isolated in her apartment Two room apartment in one of the poorest areas of Bayonne, New Jersey City, across the Manhattan Bridge. “I didn’t care about my life or the lives of others. I couldn’t face life, ”the woman told the newspaper. The temperature.

Always he kept his clothes covered with dust I wore that day, in a plastic bag hidden under the sofa. “You can still smell the fire,” he said in an interview with the Daily mail.

She was trapped in a downward spiral, she said, which brought her to the bottom. “I stopped swimming. I didn’t recognize myself when I looked at myself in the mirror, ”Marcy said. “I had fallen to about 30 kilos, it was just skin and bones. I was trying to kill myself with drugs, which was very selfish, ”he said. “My life had turned to garbage, I was taking pills, crack, anything and everything I could get my hands on. I didn’t take heroin, but who knows where I was going. Maybe it wasn’t long, ”he admitted.

However, after a decade Borders entered a rehab center and managed to make it out. The news of the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden relieved him, he said at the time. “Bin Laden’s death helped me focus on my recovery. I used to have nightmares where bin Laden bombed my house, ”Marcy explained.

The woman eventually regained custody of her children. But in April 2014 you have been diagnosed with stomach cancer. According to Borders, the disease, which progressed very quickly, could be linked to chemical pollutants issued after the collapse of the Towers.

“I’m like, ‘Did that (around 9/11) ignite the cancer cells in me?’ I really believe it because I’ve never had an illness. I don’t have high blood pressure… high cholesterol, diabetes, “he said in an interview with the newspaper. New Jersey Newspaper.

Noelle, her daughter, claimed years ago that her mother had fought an incredible battle. “She’s not just the ‘dust lady’ she’s my heroine and will live forever through me“, noted.

Like Borders, thousands of people – especially the rescuers and workers who removed the debris – suffered diseases linked to the attacks, like cancers caused by toxic dust and fumes that have covered the area for weeks. This phenomenon led to the creation of a compensatory fund under the government of Barack obama.

As revealed this week Rupa Bhattacharyya, the director of the fund, since 2001, an estimated 3,900 people have died from diseases related to, more than the 2,977 terrorist attacks. “The tragedy of September 11 continues”Bhattacharyya noted.