“Top Chef” contestant Fatima Ali crossed a major item off her bucket list Friday when she appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” for the first time.
Last month, Ali revealed that doctors had told her she had only one year to live. She had been diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, in 2017. Though she was initially told she was cancer-free after undergoing chemotherapy and surgery, she learned in September that the cancer had spread.
The 29-year-old, who relocated to the U.S. from Pakistan at age 18, opened up about her emotional journey with DeGeneres Friday. After the host asked what her bucket list for the next year included, the chef fittingly said it mostly involved food and foreign travel.
“I have so many restaurants I want to go to around Europe,” she said. “Go to Italy. Go to France. Go to Spain. Go to South Africa ... go on a safari. So many things I want to do.”
DeGeneres saved the biggest surprise for the end of the interview, when she presented Ali with a check for $50,000, courtesy of Shutterfly, toward a GoFundMe campaign that had been launched in her name to help her travel the world.
That money, however, won’t only go toward Ali’s travels, as the chef said she plans to donate some of the funds raised to the Sarcoma Foundation of America.