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NBC
News
Terminally Ill
College Player Lauren Hill Lives College Hoops Dream
By John Yang
It was over in a moment, but the layup Lauren Hill made 17 seconds into
a college basketball game Sunday was a life-long dream come true.
“I caught the ball turned and looked at the basket and I put it up
there. And I watched it all the way through,” Hill, a 19-year-old
student at Mount St. Joseph who suffers from a rare brain tumor and is
predicted to have only months to live, said of her score 17 seconds
into a game against Hiram College, which was moved up two weeks so she
would be healthy enough to play.
“I was jumping up and down and dancing on my toes because I was just so
filled with joy,” she said.
Hill, a freshman at the Cincinnati area school, was diagnosed last year
with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, a rare form of pediatric cancer.
As word of her condition and her dream to play college ball spread,
professional athletes jumped into support her, including NBA superstar
LeBron James.
"You are simply and truly “AMAZING” Lauren Hill!!! Thank you for
inspiring me and I’ll try my best to match you! Congrats on your game,"
James said on Instagram Monday.
The NCAA allowed the game to be moved up two weeks in hopes that Hill,
who has severe headaches, is sensitive to light and has difficulties
with her right hand from the cancer, could play. Some 10,000 people
packed the venue.
Hill made her first layup in the starting moments of the game, using
her left hand even though she is right-handed. After sitting on the
bench for the rest of the game following that shot, she asked to go
back in near the end. Her next attempt to score missed, but she then
made her second layup using her right hand.
"I wanted to push and challenge myself because that is who I am,” she
said, noting that she’d made a commitment to the team before she
learned of the tumor. "Once I commit to something, I do it, part of
(my) never give up attitude. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing still.
I love basketball so much. The girls they are my family already and
Coach Bear is like a dad."
For the rest of this article, including video of the shot, go to NBC News
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