Top Chef contestant Fatima Ali gets $50,000 gift from Ellen DeGeneres to travel the world

Pakistani chef Fatima Ali, popular for her turn as contestant on last year's Top Chef, appeared on The Ellen Show this week to talk about how she's dealing with her terminal cancer diagnosis.

The 29-year-old chef recently penned an op-ed for Bon Appetit, in which she shared that she has a year to live and intends to use it to make amends with the people in her life and to sample the finest food all over the world.

Fatima's flair for life and passion for food caught the interest of Ellen DeGeneres who invited her to talk about it on Ellen.

After crossing meeting Ellen off her bucket list, Fatima said that her plan now is to travel the world to dine at the best restaurants. Her friends from Top Chef have already kicked off a GoFundMe page to help her out but Ellen made sure she wouldn't need that.

The host gifted Fatima a cheque for $50,000 to finance her culinary journey.

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Fatima appeared on season 15 of Top Chef and was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer Ewing's Sarcoma right after. Chemotherapy appeared to benefit her initially but cancer returned in September with the doctor telling her it has metastasized.