Former Venezuelan beauty queen Eva Ekvall has died from breast cancer aged just 28.
The mother-of-one died on Saturday in a Houston, Texas hospital after a two year struggle with the disease, her family said.
The mother-of-one died on Saturday in a Houston, Texas hospital after a two year struggle with the disease, her family said.
Famous in her teenage years for her beauty, Ms Ekvall went on to become a news anchor, author and one of her home country's greatest cancer charity advocate.
Born to an American father and Jamaican mother, she was working in a clothes store in Caracas when she was spotted by a modelling agency scout.
'To me that was ridiculous,' she told the Guardian earlier this year. 'I thought I was overweight. I just couldn't be a model.
Aged 17, she was crowned Miss Venezuela in 2000. The following year, she was third runner-up in the Miss Universe pageant in Puerto Rico.
The journalism graduate became a model, actress and television news anchor for Venevision.
She was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer in February 2010, and underwent eight months of treatment including chemotherapy, radiation and a mastectomy.
She had noticed a lump in her breast months earlier but thought her body was changing due to her pregnancy.
'I was very angry because I should have known,' she said at the time. 'My aunt had breast cancer twice and my grandmother died from breast cancer. And I just let time go.'
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