What happens when you're only 29 years old
and you're told that you only have one year to live?
Take a look.
I think I was born to be a chef.
It was my calling.
I couldn't imagine doing anything else.
It's just something that I have to do.
My name is Fatima.
I'm 29 years old, and a few weeks ago, my doctor
said that I have only one year to live.
Hi Fatima, what did you make for us?
Chai mousse, a chai and chocolate sauce.
Right after filming Top Chef, it was
supposed to be one of the most exciting times in my life.
And I was in the hospital because I was newly
diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma.
When I was diagnosed, it was obviously incredibly jarring.
It was the biggest shock of my life.
But, I knew that the only way I was going to beat this
was through positivity and rallying people around me.
Just keep moving, keep plowing through every obstacle that
came my way.
I can't believe that we are going to go and see you
very soon, Ellen.
It's just definitely a big moment in both of our lives.
You know, going through Fatima's illness for the last like 14
months, there have been times when
Fatima has had to go through chemotherapy days on end.
And all we did was watch Ellen every day.
And the shows have played such a huge role of comfort for us.
We're very excited to be your new best friends.
Yeah.
And thank-- and thank you--
Please come over for dinner and we
will cook you all of this delicious vegetarian food I'm
making.
Yeah.
I made a special taco for you guys tonight.
Truffles!
I'm so looking forward to this next year
because I'm surrounded with so much positivity.
I'm so lucky to have friends and family like I do.
And we are going to be taking an entire tour of the world,
eating all this absolutely delicious food.
And I know that's the only way they get through this.
Yeah.
That was good.
Cut!
From New York, please welcome Fatima Ali.
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC - TAYLOR SWIFT, "STYLE"] We never go out of style,
we never go out of style.
You got that long hair slicked back, white T-shirt.
And I got that good girl faith and a tight little skirt.
And when we go crashing down, you
come back every time, because we never go out of style.
Am I saying it right, Fatima?
Yes, Fatima.
You can call me Fati.
Fati?
Yeah, OK.
Do people call you Fati?
Yeah, my friends do.
All right, well then I'll call--
Like I said, you're becoming my new best friend.
No, I am your best friend now.
Perfect.
We are for sure best friends.
So this is very inspiring.
You get on Top Chef.
First, they came to you and wanted you to be on the show,
and you said no I'm not ready, come back later.
That's just amazing.
Yes.
So how many years later did they come back to you?
Two.
OK, Two years later, then you're on Top Chef.
And you do pretty well.
Yeah, I do pretty well.
And thanks to the fans, I actually--
I won fan favorite.
Yes.
Which, some people say is better than winning the whole thing.
So I have that under my belt. Top Chef
was absolutely incredible.
I made wonderful friends.
They've been so supportive through this entire journey.
Yeah, so OK.
So you're on Top Chef, then you're off Top Chef
and it's like a year or so after, you're off the show,
right?
No, it was a few months after where I was diagnosed. no
Yes.
OK, and how-- What did you feel that you thought
you needed to see a doctor?
So, after-- maybe two months after filming,
I had this dull ache in my left shoulder, which I ignored
for a couple more months.
I got an MRI, and within four hours
he calls me on my cell phone.
And he's like, look, I hate to do this on the phone,
but I don't want to waste any time.
He's like, this could be something very serious,
I feel like you should call some family
to help you through because I'm going
to refer you to an oncologist.
So after, we went to Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York,
and I got my biopsy and it came back
that it was you Ewing Sarcoma.
Which is usually pediatric, right?
Yeah.
So this is so rare.
So it's not just pediatric, it's pediatric and male?
White male.
White male?
Yeah.
OK.
Little white boy cancer.
Right.
You're a little white boy in your soul.
Apparently.
So you go through chemo, you go through everything,
you think it's all clear.
They think it's all clear, right?
And then all of a sudden, how did this
come up that they said you have a year left?
So in July, I had clear scans I was technically cancer free.
And I had this weird ache in my left hip
after we moved to Los Angeles, and I had this nagging feeling
that something wasn't right.
So we went back to New York got another PET scan
and my doctor sat us down and they were like, look,
the cancer's back.
It's metastasized.
The chemo has not worked.
And I looked at my doctor and I was like, damn straight.
How long do I have?
And he's like, a year.
That's a lot.
Yeah, that's a lot to hear.
Yeah.
It's crazy.
Yeah.
But life is crazy.
Yeah, it is and--
God, and you're so special.
You're such a special little white boy.
Thank you.
All right I'm going to take a break.
We're going to talk about your plan--
Yeah.
And hear what you're going to do.
Awesome.
All right, we'll be back.
So let's talk about this.
And I was saying during the break, this is really hard.
It's never fair.
Anyone who is dealing with anything,
you just think this isn't fair.
But you know, you get to live the way
we're all supposed to live.
And who knows what tomorrow brings.
You just happened to have this diagnosis.
But we all should be living like that, because we none of us
know what tomorrow is.
So what is your what is your bucket list?
What are you doing?
What's now?
Well, I get to cross this off my bucket list.
This is huge.
[APPLAUSE]
Yeah.
And I'd really like I'd like to meet tWitch at some point.
All right.
Where's tWitch?
You should--
What up, tWitch?
That's another-- I can cross that off, too.
But honestly, I have so many restaurants
I want to go to around Europe.
You're obviously invited, so is Portia.
And go to Italy, go to France, go to Spain,
go to South Africa.
Go on like a safari.
There's so many things I want to do.
You should for sure go on safari.
Yes.
And so you just want to travel the world,
eat at some of the best restaurants.
And your friends have started a GoFundMe page
to help with expenses, right?
That's right.
And, you know, we're going to give a lot of it
to for research for Ewing's Sarcoma,
as well as the foundation.
So I've been very lucky to have wonderful Top Chef friends.
Adrien set up the GoFundMe and it's just-- it's exploded.
Padma has been a good friend to you, as well.
She was there with you, I saw the photos of that.
That's great.
She's great.
We love her.
All right, well, we want to be a part of helping with that.
So our friends at Shutterfly want
to make sure that you get to do everything you want to do,
so they're giving you a check for $50,000.
Oh my god.
To help--
[APPLAUSE]
This is amazing.
Thank you so much.
I want to thank Sean Hayes.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Be kind to one another.
Bye bye!
Hi, I'm Andy.
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