In 2017, Ali was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. In January 2018, she underwent chemotherapy and surgery to remove a tumor in her shoulder bone. Following her surgery, Ali was "technically cancer-free" but was undergoing two additional months on chemotherapy to help prevent it from returning. On October 9, 2018, she revealed that her cancer has returned to her left hip and femur bone. Doctors gave her a year to live with or without any treatment. She died three months later, on January 25, 2019, at the age 29.