PHOTO: ELLEN DEGENERES
Last month, Ali revealed that her cancer had returned “with a vengeance” and doctors told her she had about a year left to live. Therefore, she was spending her time doing things on her bucket list which included visiting the world’s best restaurants. “I want to go to Italy, France, Spain, go to South Africa and go on a safari - so many things I want to do.” The Top Chef contestant said she accomplished one of her first goals when she finally met DeGeneres, reported PEOPLE magazine.
PHOTO: BRAVO TVOn the show, Ali spoke of the first time she received her diagnosis of the rare form of bone cancer, Ewing’s Sarcoma last year. “It was obviously incredibly jarring,” she said. “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 the people around me.”
The chef states that in July, at the Aspen Food & Wine Festival, she was “technically cancer-free” but was undergoing two additional months of chemotherapy to help prevent it from returning. However, a couple of months later in September, Ali says she felt an ache in her left hip. “I had this nagging feeling that something wasn’t right,” she told further DeGeneres.
PHOTO: FACEBOOKAli went on to explain that she left for a PET scan as soon as she could and received the devastating news soon enough. “My doctors sat us and down and they were like, ‘Look the cancer is back, it’s metastasized. The chemo has not worked,'” she recalled. “I looked at my doctor and I was like, ‘Tell me straight. How long do I have? He was like, ‘A year’.” “That's a lot to hear,” remarked DeGeneres to which Ali responded. “It’s crazy, but that’s life.”
While seeking treatment for the past 14 months, Ali says she often found comfort in watching Ellen’s show so having the opportunity to meet her was a huge deal. DeGeneres took things one step further when she gifted her “new best friend” with $50,000 to help the chef travel the world.
'Every eighth woman is at risk of cancer'
The 29-year-old’s Top Chef co-stars had previously set up a GoFundME campaign for the same cause. She will receive 100% of the money raised and anything she does not use will go towards the Sarcoma Foundation. “I'm so looking forward to this next year because I'm surrounded with so much positivity,' Ali revealed during the segment. 'I'm so lucky to have friends and family like I do.”
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