KUALA LUMPUR: Taiwan has been shaken by news of an exemplary, hardworking university student who died recently from stomach cancer.

The 18-year-old scholar had been an inspiration to others, often burning the midnight oil to pore over his course work. He had developed the habit of working into the night since he was in secondary school, where he performed superlatively.

Unfortunately, the young man also developed the habit of consuming instant noodles, night after night. According to Taiwan’s SeeHua News, by the time he entered university, the teen had been eating instant noodles every day for a period of years.

The youth’s hard work got him into the university of his choice – but he soon began to feel chronically unwell, and was laid low by symptoms such as nausea, bloating and stomach ache.

As his symptoms worsened, his family took him to a hospital for a check-up. The diagnosis was absolutely gutting – he had stage four stomach cancer, and his chances of pulling through were extremely slim.

After a year of battling the disease, the boy with the bright academic future succumbed to the disease.

In the wake of the widely-reported tragedy, an oncologist at the hospital where the teen was treated, Dr Yan Jiarui, urged Taiwanese to reduce their intake of instant noodles, as well as pickled food and red meat, all of which have been linked to cancer reported by nst.