<h1>Barack Obama's beloved grandmother dies of cancer
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<p> By <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Daily+Mail+Reporter" class="author">Daily Mail Reporter</a>
<br /> Last updated at 9:57 PM on 03rd November 2008
</p>
<p>US Presidential Candidate Barack Obama's grandmother has died of cancer just a day before the election.
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<p>'It is with great sadness that we announce that our grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has died peacefully after a battle with cancer,' Obama said in a joint statement with his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng.
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<p>'She was the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility.'
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<img src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/11/03/article-1082775-0258A269000005DC-455_468x437.jpg" alt="obama" class="blkBorder" height="437" width="468" />
<p class="imageCaption">Sad news: US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama with grandmother Madelyn Dunham, who has died of cancer
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<img class="blkBorder" alt="Obama" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/10/21/article-0-02302410000005DC-524_468x397.jpg" height="397" width="468" />
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<p class="imageCaption">Happier times: Obama with his grandparents, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham in New York City, during a visit with Obama, who was a student at Columbia University in the 1980s
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<p>Dunham helped raise Obama from the age of 10 while his mother was working in Indonesia.
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<p>The 85-year-old who suffered from severe osteoporosis, was released from hospital last week and had been seriously ill at her home in Honolulu, Hawaii.
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<p>Her death comes a week after Obama interrupted the White House race to take an emotional 22-hour trip to say goodbye to her in Hawaii.
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<p>With less than a fortnight until the U.S. presidential election, his decision to cancel a string of key campaign events stunned his supporters.
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<p>But Mr Obama, 47, overruled his worried advisers to put his family first by making a two-day visit to the white grandmother who helped raise him.
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<p><a class="lightboxPopupLink" onclick="return false" href="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/11/03/article-1082591-0257F954000005DC-816_468x268_popup.jpg" rel="On top: But a confident Barack Obama was also campaigning in the Sunshine State today, where every vote will count">
<img class="blkBorder" alt="On top: But a confident Barack Obama was also campaigning in Florida today, where every vote will count" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/11/03/article-1082591-0257F954000005DC-816_468x268.jpg" height="268" width="468" /> </a>
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<p class="imageCaption">Close: Obama has often spoken of his love for the 85-year-old who helped to raise him
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<p>Mr Obama has made regular references to her on the campaign trail, and he even referred to her in a landmark speech on race in March after he was urged to distance himself from a radical black preacher whose church he had attended.
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<p>He said: 'I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.'
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<p>'She has always been one of the most important people in his life. She poured everything she had into him,' the Democratic senator's spokesman said at the time.
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<p>The Kansas roots which Mr Obama often mentions come from Mrs Dunham and her husband, Stanley, who died in 1992.
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<p>Their daughter Ann met Mr Obama's Kenyan father, also called Barack, at university in Hawaii.
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</p>Barack Snr left the family when his son was just two, and died in a car crash in 1982. His mother died from ovarian cancer in 1995.
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</h1>
<p> By <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Daily+Mail+Reporter" class="author">Daily Mail Reporter</a>
<br /> Last updated at 9:57 PM on 03rd November 2008
</p>
<p>US Presidential Candidate Barack Obama's grandmother has died of cancer just a day before the election.
<br />
</p>
<p>'It is with great sadness that we announce that our grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has died peacefully after a battle with cancer,' Obama said in a joint statement with his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng.
<br />
</p>
<p>'She was the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility.'
</p>
<div class="clear">
</div>
<img src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/11/03/article-1082775-0258A269000005DC-455_468x437.jpg" alt="obama" class="blkBorder" height="437" width="468" />
<p class="imageCaption">Sad news: US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama with grandmother Madelyn Dunham, who has died of cancer
<br />
</p>
<p>
<img class="blkBorder" alt="Obama" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/10/21/article-0-02302410000005DC-524_468x397.jpg" height="397" width="468" />
</p>
<p class="imageCaption">Happier times: Obama with his grandparents, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham in New York City, during a visit with Obama, who was a student at Columbia University in the 1980s
</p>
<p>Dunham helped raise Obama from the age of 10 while his mother was working in Indonesia.
<br />
</p>
<p>The 85-year-old who suffered from severe osteoporosis, was released from hospital last week and had been seriously ill at her home in Honolulu, Hawaii.
<br />
</p>
<p>Her death comes a week after Obama interrupted the White House race to take an emotional 22-hour trip to say goodbye to her in Hawaii.
<br />
</p>
<p>With less than a fortnight until the U.S. presidential election, his decision to cancel a string of key campaign events stunned his supporters.
<br />
</p>
<p>But Mr Obama, 47, overruled his worried advisers to put his family first by making a two-day visit to the white grandmother who helped raise him.
<br />
</p>
<p><a class="lightboxPopupLink" onclick="return false" href="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/11/03/article-1082591-0257F954000005DC-816_468x268_popup.jpg" rel="On top: But a confident Barack Obama was also campaigning in the Sunshine State today, where every vote will count">
<img class="blkBorder" alt="On top: But a confident Barack Obama was also campaigning in Florida today, where every vote will count" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/11/03/article-1082591-0257F954000005DC-816_468x268.jpg" height="268" width="468" /> </a>
</p>
<p class="imageCaption">Close: Obama has often spoken of his love for the 85-year-old who helped to raise him
<br />
</p>
<p>Mr Obama has made regular references to her on the campaign trail, and he even referred to her in a landmark speech on race in March after he was urged to distance himself from a radical black preacher whose church he had attended.
<br />
</p>
<p>He said: 'I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.'
<br />
</p>
<p>'She has always been one of the most important people in his life. She poured everything she had into him,' the Democratic senator's spokesman said at the time.
<br />
</p>
<p>The Kansas roots which Mr Obama often mentions come from Mrs Dunham and her husband, Stanley, who died in 1992.
<br />
</p>
<p>Their daughter Ann met Mr Obama's Kenyan father, also called Barack, at university in Hawaii.
<br />
</p>Barack Snr left the family when his son was just two, and died in a car crash in 1982. His mother died from ovarian cancer in 1995.
