It was nearly 10 years ago that the dramatic story of Dr. Jerri Nielsen caught worldwide attention. At the bottom of the world — the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station — she had to perform a biopsy on herself to confirm a diagnosis of breast cancer. Then she battled the disease while waiting for a rescue that had to be put off for months.
There's word today that Nielsen, 57, has died. Her husband says cancer finally caught up with her. She passed away Tuesday at their home in Southwick, Mass.
In 2006, Nielsen had this to say to Psychology Today about her experience at the South Pole:
"The things that make you strong, and make you feel as though you've accomplished something, are not the easy ones; it's the things you had to work and struggle through. Those are what give us our depth—that make us not just gray and plain and nothing, but give us depth and texture and longing."
Nielsen at the South Pole on Oct. 7, 1999.
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