Fatima Ali, a contestant on US reality TV show ‘Top Chef’ season 15 passed away earlier this year after surrendering to terminal cancer.
On April 26, 2019, Fatima Ali’s writing in the category of Personal Essay, Short was awarded the James Beard Foundation Journalism Award posthumously.
Ms Ali was initially diagnosed with a rare form of cancer known as Ewings Sarcoma in December 2017. After undergoing several sessions of chemotherapy and surgery she recovered.
As part of the procedure, she found out that the range of motion in her left hand would be affected. In an essay Ms Ali talks about how cancer changed the way she cooks.
“A surgery to remove the tumor has excavated 30 percent of bone and tissue from my scapula, permanently affecting my range of motion. I’ll never be able to high-five my friends with my left hand again. Will I be able to cook?”
She further mentions in the essay on how frustrating it was to be lying in a hospital bed, crying and not being at home cooking on Thanksgiving.
Ms Ali had a dream of opening up a restaurant which she had put on pause while being treated for cancer.
“I dream of my future restaurant, where the kebabs melt against your tongue and the cocktails are just sweet enough to calm the burn.” Ms Ali said in the essay.
In an Instagram post while her recovery was ongoing she said that she was overcome with joy by being able to cook again at the Pebble Beach Food and Wine event.
Ms Ali’s positivity kept her going and she thanked her Doctor for being the best and helping her. In her way of showing gratitude, she cooked and fed a room full of survivors.
'I’m a Chef With Terminal Cancer'
Things took a turn for worse in September last year when her cancer returned. The doctors told her she had a year to live.
In an award-winning essay titled: ‘I'm a Chef With Terminal Cancer. This Is What I'm Doing with the Time I Have Left’ Ms Ali writes about how everyone takes time for granted and forgets to live.
“The cancer cells my doctors believed had vanished are back with a vengeance in my left hip and femur bone. 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.”
She goes on talking about spending more time in hospitals than her apartment over the last few years.
TOP CHEF -- "Olympic Dreams" Episode 1507 -- Pictured: (l-r) Fatima Ali, Bruce Kalman, Claudette Wilkins -- (Photo by: Paul Trantow/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank) Source: Getty Images
“My blood pressure always stays on the low side of calm. 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.”
She also talks about getting a hair stylist to dye her hair platinum blonde. The hairstylist is worried that it might burn her scalp to which Ms Ali replies to carry on. “It is the only sense of control I feel like I have right now.”
Ms Ali passed away in January after fighting as long as she could.
In one of the last photos that Ms Ali posted to social media, she said that all she needs is prayers at this time and forgiveness from people.
“Right now all I need are prayers; prayers that are simple. I hope because a wish is putting on too much responsibility on the other, that you will somehow find forgiveness in your big heart for whenever I must have hurt you.
I thank you a million times over for when you have given me joy.”
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