Cape Malay kitchen queen Fatima Sydow took to social media on Sunday to give mense an update on her battle with cancer.
The 49-year-old cookbook author has been sharing her experiences with her thousands of social media followers since she was first diagnosed in December 2020.
Her journey has been an emotional ride of recovery and remission ever since, yet Fatima has remained positive by sharing messages of hope and encouragement with her friends and family through her social media updates.
On Sunday, Fatima, who has stage 4 soft tissue sarcoma cancer, had another setback and shocked her beloved fans with the latest update on her health.
In a Facebook post, she wrote: “Third year in, soft tissue sarcoma stage 4 cancer. An extremely rare and aggressive type of cancer. I am so grateful for the time granted to me thus far. So much mercy.
“To all my friends, extended family and followers, I have some not so good news to share with you all.
“My chemotherapy treatment has stopped working. I got the results 10 days ago.
“The tumours are growing again and we have kinda run out of options.
“My character and nature will go on and live each day to the fullest and to the best of my ability.
“I am waiting for the cold weather to go away so I can go sit in the garden and watch the birds with my binoculars.
“One of my favourite things to do. I am definitely just going to take it one day at a time. Spend as much time with my family and rest.
“This journey has been a rollercoaster of a ride. Emotionally, mentally and physically.
“But I can’t say it enough. I am so grateful for everything and all the love and support. Alhamdulillah. Love you all so much.”
Moments after sharing the news, she received thousands of messages of support from her followers.
In May, the bubbly cook celebrated with a victory dance when her tumour was shrinking and chemotherapy was working well.
Fatima also launched her new cookbook, My Story, My Heritage, which reached best-seller status after a week on the shelves.
dailyvoice@inl.co.za