On This Day: The death of Princess Diana, a campaigner to the very end
Given the tragic nature of her death on this day 26 years ago, it's often forgotten that Princess Diana was a campaigner to the very end.
Just three weeks before she died, in what turned out to be her final overseas tour, Diana, Princess of Wales paid a three-day visit to Bosnia.
It was part of her crusade to outlaw landmines, with the princess meeting victims of the weapons in the wake of the country's brutal civil war earlier in the decade.
One victim, Malic Bradaric (pictured below), told AP on the 20th anniversary of her death in 2017 that Diana was “a light at the end of the tunnel” following his ordeal, in which he lost most of his right leg in 1996 when aged 13.
The Bosnia trip followed a similar visit to Angola earlier that year, in which Diana met landmine casualties from its 20-year civil war.
Her campaigning with the British Red Cross contributed to the signing of an international treaty to ban the military weapons at the end of 1997.
Diana, of course, never saw her work come to fruition as she died in Paris three weeks after the Bosnia trip.
Watch: Princess Diana's incredible legacy remembered
The princess, who was also famous for her campaigning work breaking the stigma surrounding HIV and Aids patients, and championing the homeless, died in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997.
The Mercedes she was travelling in with her lover Dodi Fayed – she had divorced Prince Charles in 1996 – was being pursued by paparazzi after leaving the Ritz Hotel in the French capital.
It crashed in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel while being driven by chauffeur Henri Paul, who was drunk and driving too fast.
She was 36. Her death prompted a national – and international – outpouring of grief.
A sea of flowers was left at the gates of Kensington Palace by stunned members of the public. On the day of her funeral, 6 September, hundreds of thousands of mourners gathered in central London.
A young Prince William and Prince Harry, then aged 15 and 12, walked behind their mother’s coffin as it proceeded through the streets on its way to Westminster Abbey.
Even 26 years after her death, Diana remains hugely relevant. Do a quick Google search of her name and a catalogue of news stories will appear.
It's appropriate, then, that a statue was specially opened two years ago for well-wishers to mark the anniversary of her death since the long-awaited memorial was unveiled.
Read more:
Diana 'was not fully aware' of 'machine' of Royal Family when she married, friend says
Princess Diana 'was meant to be in UK on night she died' in Paris
The bronze tribute was finally revealed by William and Harry together – despite their troubled relationship – at a ceremony on 1 July 2021, on what would have been their mother’s 60th birthday.
Watch: William and Harry unveil Diana statue at Kensington Palace