Former Miss Venezuela dies of breast cancer at 28

Summary of story from The Telegraph, December 20, 2011

The former Miss Venezuela, Eva Ekvall, has died following a two year battle with breast cancer.  She was 28.

Ekvall was crowned Miss Venezuela at just 17 years old in 2000.  In the following year she was third runner-up in the Miss Universe pageant in Puerto Rico. She went on to work as a model, actress and television news anchor.

She also authored a book, “Fuera de Foco” (“Out of Focus”), about her struggle with cancer.

She told the newspaper El Nacional in an interview last year after the book was published that “I needed to send the message of the need for cancer prevention.”

On the cover was a portrait in which she appeared with makeup and her head shaved. The book also included images of her while going through chemotherapy.