Lauren Hill, inspirational college basketball player, dies following brave fight against cancer
Lauren Hill holds a sign made for her, which she keeps in her room in Cincinnati, along with many other messages and gifts of support. Hill used her limited energy and her final days to try to inspire people and raise money for cancer research.
Lauren Hill, the college basketball player whose fight against cancer captured the country's attention, has died. She was 19.
Hill was diagnosed with terminal cancer during her senior year of high school. Last fall doctors told her that she had just months to live, with the inoperable tumor on her brain growing day by day, but she beat those odds, playing in the season-opener for Mount St. Joseph's and being named a member of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference's first team just this week Wednesday.
But it wasn't her play that earned her accolades, it was her fight. Hill dedicated herself to raising money to help others fight the disease that was killing her - Diffused Intrinsic Pontine Giloma. As of last week, she had raised more than $1.5 million for that cause.
Lauren Hill (l.) smiles at Pat Summitt after receiving the Pat Summitt Most Courageos Award.
"Through Lauren's fund-raising and advocacy efforts she not only became a spotlight on the lack of funding for cancer research, but she most certainly has become a beacon guiding researchers for years to come," Brook Desserich, co-founder of The Cure Starts Now, said on the group's Facebook page.
The NCAA obliged when Mount St. Joseph's requested they play their season opener a few days earlier - on Nov. 2 - to allow Hill to play. Her first game became such an event in the Cincinnati area that MSJ's Division III gym couldn't accommodate all of the fans. The game was moved to Xavier University's 10,000-seat arena and played before a standing room only crowd that included WNBA stars Elena Della Donne, Tamika Catchings and Skylar Diggins and legendary women's basketball coach Pat Summitt. Hill was awarded the Pat Summitt Most Courageous Award that day, an honor normally handed out at the Final Four but was bestowed upon Hill on the season's first game.
Mount St. Joseph's Lauren Hill gives thumbs up as she holds the game ball during her first NCAA game against Hiram University at Xavier University on Nov. 2, 2014. The NCAA allowed Mount St. Joseph's season opener to be moved up to Nov. 2, so that Hill, who has an inoperable brain tumor, to be able to play in a college basketball game.
Hill scored the game's first basket, an uncontested left-handed layup. She would play in four games for Mount St. Joseph's and scored 10 points. She finished the year with the team as an honorary coach.
Hill's condition - which normally affects children ages 4-9 but struck Hill when she was 18 - worsened in recent weeks, and Cincinnati's WKRC reported that on Feb. 6 Hill was presented with an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the university in a private ceremony that included friends, family and teammates.
"When I leave that's fine. I'm not scared," she told Cincinatti's WKRC. "I'm scared for everybody else, like my family and how they'll handle it. And it will be fine."
This post was edited on 4/10 8:27 AM by Halldan1
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/inspirational-college-basketball-player-lauren-hill-dies-article-1.2180367
Lauren Hill, the college basketball player whose fight against cancer captured the country's attention, has died. She was 19.
Hill was diagnosed with terminal cancer during her senior year of high school. Last fall doctors told her that she had just months to live, with the inoperable tumor on her brain growing day by day, but she beat those odds, playing in the season-opener for Mount St. Joseph's and being named a member of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference's first team just this week Wednesday.
But it wasn't her play that earned her accolades, it was her fight. Hill dedicated herself to raising money to help others fight the disease that was killing her - Diffused Intrinsic Pontine Giloma. As of last week, she had raised more than $1.5 million for that cause.
Lauren Hill (l.) smiles at Pat Summitt after receiving the Pat Summitt Most Courageos Award.
"Through Lauren's fund-raising and advocacy efforts she not only became a spotlight on the lack of funding for cancer research, but she most certainly has become a beacon guiding researchers for years to come," Brook Desserich, co-founder of The Cure Starts Now, said on the group's Facebook page.
The NCAA obliged when Mount St. Joseph's requested they play their season opener a few days earlier - on Nov. 2 - to allow Hill to play. Her first game became such an event in the Cincinnati area that MSJ's Division III gym couldn't accommodate all of the fans. The game was moved to Xavier University's 10,000-seat arena and played before a standing room only crowd that included WNBA stars Elena Della Donne, Tamika Catchings and Skylar Diggins and legendary women's basketball coach Pat Summitt. Hill was awarded the Pat Summitt Most Courageous Award that day, an honor normally handed out at the Final Four but was bestowed upon Hill on the season's first game.
Mount St. Joseph's Lauren Hill gives thumbs up as she holds the game ball during her first NCAA game against Hiram University at Xavier University on Nov. 2, 2014. The NCAA allowed Mount St. Joseph's season opener to be moved up to Nov. 2, so that Hill, who has an inoperable brain tumor, to be able to play in a college basketball game.
Hill scored the game's first basket, an uncontested left-handed layup. She would play in four games for Mount St. Joseph's and scored 10 points. She finished the year with the team as an honorary coach.
Hill's condition - which normally affects children ages 4-9 but struck Hill when she was 18 - worsened in recent weeks, and Cincinnati's WKRC reported that on Feb. 6 Hill was presented with an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the university in a private ceremony that included friends, family and teammates.
"When I leave that's fine. I'm not scared," she told Cincinatti's WKRC. "I'm scared for everybody else, like my family and how they'll handle it. And it will be fine."
This post was edited on 4/10 8:27 AM by Halldan1
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/inspirational-college-basketball-player-lauren-hill-dies-article-1.2180367
