"Top Chef" Contestant Fatima Ali Loses Battle with Cancer

Breaking News
“Top Chef” contestant Fatima Ali has lost her battle with bone cancer. 
Ali — who was very public with her diagnosis and fight — sent a message out to fans a couple weeks ago saying, “I know it’s been ages since I posted and most may have figured out w...
"Top Chef" Contestant Fatima Ali Loses Battle with Cancer

Fatima Ali: Terminally Ill Top Chef Star Receives Outpouring of Support

If you’re a fan of the acclaimed Bravo cooking competition Top Chef, then you may have already heard the tragic news that beloved former contestant Fatima Ali has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Ali revealed her diagnosis Tuesday in a heartbreaking essay published by Bon Appetit.

“My oncologist has told me that I have a year to live, with or without the new chemotherapy regimen,” Ali wrote.

“I was looking forward to being 30, flirty, and thriving. Guess I have to step it up on the flirting. I have no time to lose.”

“I am desperate to overload my senses in the coming months, making reservations at the world’s best restaurants, reaching out to past lovers and friends, and smothering my family, giving them the time that I so selfishly guarded before.”

Displaying the trademark wit that made her a fan favorite during her time on the show, Ali added:

“I was looking forward to being 30, flirty and thriving. Guess I have to step it up on the flirting. I have no time to lose.”

In the hours after Chef Fatima’s article was published, thousands offered words of gratitude and support on social media, including her Top Chef co-stars:

“This is my friend, she is courage, strength and she wrote a piece almost as beautiful as she is, link is in my bio please read and share #teamfati,” wrote Top Chef Season 15 champion Joe Flamm.

“Can’t even begin to say how devastated I am to hear this news, it really hit me hard! No one truly can understand the bond created through @bravotopchef we’ve become a close knit family very quickly,” fellow chef Bruce Kalman wrote.

“I’m so inspired by @cheffati bravery and positive outlook on this situation.

Fatima Ali: Top Chef Offer Support

“The deep connection and love we all have for each other, for better or worse, is unrivaled. Life is too short and it’s time we all appreciated everyone and everything in our lives.”

Just days before she revealed that her illness had reached the terminal stage, Ali posted the above video of her co-stars wishing her well from an event in Connecticut that she had been unable to attend.

We hope Fatima finds comfort in knowing that she will receive such love and support in her final days — and joy in knowing that she’s been an inspiration to so many.

ReadMore…

Fatima Ali, Beloved Top Chef Star, Reveals Terminal Cancer Diagnosis

Fatima Ali is in need of your prayers.

The former Top Chef contestant, whose personality made her into a fan favorite on Season 15, has penned a powerful and emotional essay.

In it, Ali reveals that she has cancer — and will almost certainly be dead in a year.

“The cancer cells my doctors believed had vanished are back with a vengeance in my left hip and femur bone,” wrote the 29-year old on Tuesday wrote in a post published by Bon Appétit’s Healthyish.

In heartbreaking detail, she proceeded to give fans her diagnosis:

“My oncologist has told me that I have a year to live, with or without the new chemotherapy regimen.

“I was looking forward to being 30, flirty and thriving. Guess I have to step it up on the flirting. I have no time to lose.”

We have no idea how Ali, or anyone in her situation, can joke at a time like this.

It’s the epitome of bravery.

“It’s funny, isn’t it?” continued the beloved reality star.

“When we think we have all the time in the world to live, we forget to indulge in the experiences of living.

“When that choice is yanked away from us, that’s when we scramble to feel.

“I am desperate to overload my senses in the coming months, making reservations at the world’s best restaurants, reaching out to past lovers and friends, and smothering my family, giving them the time that I so selfishly guarded before.”

That’s what the song and the saying says, right?

To live like you are dying?

It really is tragic that only those actually dying typically have this kind of perspective.

Ali finished in seventh place on Top Chef.

In late 2017, she was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, which is a type of bone and soft tissue cancer.

The aspiring chef underwent numerous rounds of chemotherapy prior to having the tumor in her left shoulder surgically removed.

This is a photo of Ali and Padma Lakshmi in the hospital from January of 2018.

She announced in February that she was cancer-free, yet started suffering complications after completing her final found of chemotherapy in August.

“I’ve spent more time in sterile hospital rooms in the past year than I have in my own apartment,” Ali wrote in her essay.

“This has become my new home, and the staff a part of my family…

“Everyone’s amazed that I’m taking it so well. But when you hit rock bottom, there really is no place to go but up.”

Ali doesn’t know how much time she has left for sure, but she plans to spend the final months of her life doing what she loves best: visiting new restaurants in New York City.

“I was always deathly afraid of being average in any way,” she concluded. “And now I desperately wish to have a simple, uneventful life.”

God bless her.

ReadMore…