Beauty Queen Loses High-Profile Cancer Battle

The beauty queen was crowned Miss Venezuela at the age of 17 in 2000, and the following year she was third runner-up in the Miss Universe pageant in Puerto Rico.

Miss Ekvall, who also worked as an actress and TV presenter, wrote a book, Fuera de Foco (Out of Focus), about her struggle with cancer, which included images by Venezuelan photographer Roberto Mata.

I hate to see photos in which I come out ugly. But you know what? Nobody ever said cancer is pretty or that I should look like Miss Venezuela when I have cancer.

Eva Ekvall 

In an interview last year, she told the newspaper El Nacional: "I needed to send the message of the need for cancer prevention."

Her cover portrait showed her without makeup and her head shaved. The book also included images of her while going through chemotherapy.

"I hate to see photos in which I come out ugly," she said at the time. "But you know what? Nobody ever said cancer is pretty or that I should look like Miss Venezuela when I have cancer."

In her book, Ms Ekvall described her joy at the birth of her daughter saying: "that happiness, although (the daughter) may not know it or understand it, keeps me alive today."

The book included emails that she wrote to friends providing updates on her treatment and thanking them for their support, as well as short essays by relatives and friends reflecting on her ordeal.

Her father, Eric Ekvall, recalled in the book that his mother, also named Eva, had died of the same type of cancer at age 39.

"Those who know Eva know she doesn't give up," he wrote of his daughter. "She fights for what she wants."

Ms Ekvall's remains were cremated in Houston, where she was in hospital, and are being taken home to Venezuela where her funeral will be held.

Although her mother is Jamaican and her father is American of Swedish and Hungarian descent, she once said: "I feel more Venezuelan than anybody."

Her husband posted a photo on Twitter on Sunday of a close-up of his hand holding hers, resting on a bed, with the words "Always together ... I love you wife."

Absolutely Fabulous star Jennifer Saunders took pills to cope wtih cancer battle

The comedienne, 53 ? now in remission ? told how drugs, chemotherapy and radiotherapy left her "drained and exhausted".

She said: "It's like suddenly becoming older.

"You feel fagged out, you lose your motor and it makes you feel depressed.

"You have that 'I want to go to bed and sleep for ever' kind of feeling."

The French and Saunders funnygirl ? interviewed in the Radio Times ? said that just as she was at her lowest ebb she was also hit by the menopause.

She described it as "like jumping off a cliff" ? and she felt "the whole world" was against her.

The mum of three, who is married to comic Ade Edmondson, was persuaded to seek help for her mental problems.

She described the medication she was prescribed as "brilliant".

Jennifer was also buoyed by teaming up again with Absolutely Fabulous co-star Joanna Lumley, 65, for three Christmas episodes of the smash BBC sitcom.

She now ensures her daughters Ella, 25, Beattie, 24, and Freya, 21, get yearly mammograms ? telling them: "Just do it."

50/50 review: Diagnosis is surprisingly uplifting for cancer movie

50/50 is a surprisingly uplifting romantic comedy about a likeable young radio journalist (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who discovers he has cancer — an affliction that changes his relationships with his self-absorbed girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard), overbearing mother (Anjelica Huston) and oafish best buddy (Seth Rogen).

The diagnosis also brings him into contact with a cute if inexperienced doctor (Anna Kendrick). She wants to help him psychologically, and in other ways, too.

Levitt and Kendrick are subtle, sweet and intelligent enough to compensate for the faint misogyny of the script and the crassness of Rogen’s contribution, which is blatantly an attempt to play to opening-weekend teenagers.

Will Reiser’s semi-autobiographical script leans over backwards and in every other direction to find the positive aspects of cancer, and discovers a few truths that offset the usual cliches of cancer weepies.

It’s no masterpiece, and Jonathan Levine’s direction has the flatness of TV. All the same, it’s cute, even for people who are well; and to those unfortunate enough to have a potentially terminal illness, it could be inspirational.