Lauren Hill is a nineteen-year-old girl who loves to play basketball. She has played basketball throughout her entire high school career, and was recruited to play at Mount St. Joseph University. Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor known as Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) a few days after she turned 18. At practice she was suffering from dizziness while playing for her high school team. “I wasn’t keeping up with the other girls, my ball handling was sloppy, I was tired,” Hill said in an interview with CNN, “But then I figured that maybe it was just because I was out of shape.”

She asked her doctor if she was still going to be able to play basketball. Her doctor’s response was yes, but she would have to go through chemotherapy at the same time. “There’s nothing really to say, because they can’t do anything,” she told the reporters. Last month, doctors told her she doesn’t have much time left to live; Mount St. Joseph University asked the NCAA if they could move its season opener up by two weeks to November 2. The NCAA responded positively, approving their request. “The roar of the crowd, the bouncing of the balls and the squeaking of the shoes. I just can’t wait to be on this court in a basketball uniform with the number 22,” Hill said.

Lauren will join her new teammates for her first college game against Hiram College. Doctors have told her she only has until December to live. She is getting weaker and weaker each day. Everyone is so touched by her story and wants to watch her play, which the university says they may move the game to an even bigger venue so that everyone who wants to attend can be there for what will be her first and final college game. She says, “I never gave up for a second, even when I got a terminal diagnosis; I never thought about sitting back and not living anymore.”

Tuesday morning at Mount St. Joseph University’s women’s basketball practice Devon Still, who is a linebacker for the Cincinnati Bengals, surprised Lauren. Devon’s daughter Leah has cancer, so he talked to her parents because he knows what they are going through. According to Lauren’s father, she wasn’t feeling well but she still made it onto the court to run drills. Devon gave Lauren a Bengals jersey signed with his name, his number, and under it “#BEATCANCER.”

“She was a huge gift from God, and if he takes her back we’ll have to deal with it, but while we had her for 19 years she was ours,” Hill’s mother said. Hill continues to celebrate life, and thanks to the NCAA, Hill’s dream of playing in a college basketball game will come true.