The 14-year-old former "MasterChef Junior" contestant died Monday.
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay reportedly donated $50,000 to help pay for treatment for “MasterChef Junior” contestant Ben Watkins as he battled the rare cancer that claimed his life.
Watkins died Monday at age 14.
Ramsay donated the money back in August, Variety reported.
That was around the same time Ramsay and other “MasterChef Junior” contestants sent Watkins loving messages on video.
“If you can beat me in the ‘MasterChef Junior’ kitchen, trust me, you can beat this,” Ramsay said. “God bless, and lots of love, buddy.”
Watkins, who starred in the reality show’s sixth season, was undergoing treatment for angiomatoid fibrous histiocytoma — a soft tissue tumor — at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
The promising young cooking star was one of only six people in the world who suffered from the disease.
Anthony Edwards, Watkins’ uncle and legal guardian, said his nephew “never complained” despite all the pain he went through.
“We were praying for a different outcome,” he told the Chicago Tribune.
“But Ben’s lungs could no longer give him the air he needed to breathe. It’s been devastating.”
In 2017, Watkins’ father killed his mother, and then himself in a murder-suicide. Edwards said his nephew was always a happy child even though he experienced that terrible tragedy.
“Ben was just so selfless,” he told the Tribune. “It was unreal, the character he has … he had.”
