The death of a prominent breast cancer awareness campaigner highlights the fact that, although breast cancer rates in China are lower than those in Western countries, younger women are increasingly at risk. Liu Zhihua reports.

Prominent breast cancer awareness campaigner Yu Juan died on Tuesday, drawing attention to the killer disease. The 33-year-old's blog, chronicling her triumphs and setbacks in her fight against the cancer, has drawn 3.2 million visits, raising awareness among younger women in particular.

Yu passed away in a Shanghai hospital on Tuesday at 3 am.

Yu was diagnosed with breast cancer when she went to see a doctor in late 2009, as she had unbearable back pain.

She was told she had advanced metastatic breast cancer. The cancerous cells had spread to her bones, causing the back pain.

"I always thought breast cancer was something older women got," said Yu, mother of a 2-year-old son, and a promising faculty member at Shanghai's Fudan University.

"I was so wrong," she said.

According to the latest report of the bureau of disease control and prevention of the Ministry of Health, the incidence of breast cancer in the country stands at 43 per 100,000.

Although this is lower than in Western countries - it is about 100 per 100,000 in the United States - breast cancer is hitting Chinese women at a much younger age.