Girl Fights Cancer to Play Her First College Basketball Game

This girl is a true hero.

Lauren Hill is a first-year student at Mount St. Joseph College whose lifelong dream was to play college basketball. But last year, the doctors found a rare tumor in her brain and told her she had 18 months to live. What her team, her school, and the basketball community did for her will bring tears to your eyes.

All Lauren wanted was to play in a college basketball game, but time was running short and she wasn’t sure if she’d make it to the first game of the season. So Mount St. Joseph asked to move the game up two weeks. Xavier University hosted the game with Hiram College, and their 10,290 seats sold out in half an hour. Lauren got to start.

This girl fought through horrible headaches, nausea, and dizziness just to practice. Add the noise and lights of a big game and imagine how she felt! But Lauren was beaming the whole time.

The team designed its first play just for Lauren. In a few seconds, Mount St. Joseph got the ball and fed it to Lauren, who made a layup with her off hand in front of a crowd of 10,000 people. Her team rushed the court to hug her. The whole stadium was on their feet for the entire play and roared when the referees gave Lauren the game ball.

After her first basket, Lauren supported her teammates from the bench for most of the game. She went in again with 25 seconds to go and scored again, finishing the game “with four points and two of the most heartwarming baskets any player will score this season.”

“I’ve never felt so good in my entire life,” Lauren said after the game. She says her teammates are like her family – they help her stay positive.

Now that she’s accomplished this huge goal, Lauren is focusing on raising awareness and money for cancer research. One way she’s doing that is the “Layup for Lauren” challenge: Spin around five times (to mimic how Lauren feels every day) then make a layup with your off hand. Thousands have tried, and anyone who misses is asked to donate $10 to cancer research.

Lauren may not have long to live, but she’s going to live all she can until her time is up.

Here’s a video you can watch about this inspiring young woman:

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