Wu Huayan sad story: Chinese student dies after eating only rice and chili because of poverty

A severely malnourished student who survived on just 2 yuan ($0.30) per day for years to support her brother has died, Chinese media say.

Wu Huayan's plight shocked China when pictures of the young woman, who weighed just over 20kg, emerged last year.

She was admitted to hospital with breathing problems in October 2019. Donations flooded in to help her recovery, but her brother told reporters she had died on January 13, BBC reported.

Wu had told the Chongqing Morning Post that she turned to the media for help after watching her father and grandmother die because they had no money to pay for treatment.

"I don't want to experience that - to wait for death because of poverty," she said.

Doctors said last year that the third-year university student was suffering from heart and kidney problems as a result of five years spent eating minimal amounts of food.

Wu Huayan and her brother had struggled to survive for many years. They lost their mother when she was four and their father died when she was still in school.

She and her brother were then supported by their grandmother, and later by an uncle and aunt who could only provide 300 yuan each month. Most of that money went on the medical bills of her younger brother, who had mental health problems. This meant Wu spent only 2 yuan a day on herself, surviving largely off chillies and rice for five years. When she arrived in the hospital, she was only 135cm tall.

Doctors said she was so malnourished that her eyebrows and 50% of her hair had fallen out.