In a confirmed report from TMZ, it was confirmed that the teenaged “Masterchef Jr.” Ben Watkins lost his battle with cancer on Monday at the Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. He was only 14 years old.
Watkins was diagnosed a year and a half ago with the rare cancer called Angiomatoid Fibrous Histiocytoma, of which the teenager was one of six people in the world who had contracted this illness.
As an aspiring chef, Ben used to cook and hold down the front counter at Big Ben’s Bodacious BBQ and Delicatessen in Gary, Indiana with his parents, who Watkins lost three years ago in a murder-suicide. Ben competed in season 6 of “MasterChef Junior,” the cooking show with Gordon Ramsey, when he was only 11 years old.
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Gordon and Ben’s former “MasterChef Junior” competitors sent him a special video earlier this year when he was battling cancer, letting him know they were praying for him and helping raise donations for a GoFundMe, which is now a memorial fund.