Eva Ekvall: Former Miss Venezuela Dies At Aged 28, After 2 Years Struggle With Breast Cancer

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.

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.

'In the beginning I wasn't sure if I looked good or not. Then I realised that wasn't the point. I wasn't supposed to look good, I had cancer'

'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.'