iLauren Hill was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer in her senior year of high school in 2013. She had already picked to play basketball at Mt. St. Joseph before she was diagnosed. After she was diagnosed, the doctors didn’t know if she would be in well enough to play in a college basketball game, but on Sunday, November 2, she played in her very first college game at Mt. Saint Joseph. The NCAA approved to move the game up two weeks just so Lauren could play. The game had to be moved from an arena that seated 2,000 people to an arena that seats 10,000 people and it was still sold out in less than an hour. Lauren scored the first points of the game with a lay up and her whole team swarmed her. During half time, Lauren received an award presented by Pat Summit, one of the most winningest coaches in women’s college basketball history. The award was the US basketball writers association most courageous award, a distinction normally reserved for a women’s coach or player during the women’s final four. Lauren went back in the game the second half just to score another lay up. After the game Lauren was presented with the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award for overcoming adversity and serving as a positive role mode.

Lauren met with Rachael Nichols of CNN news to talk about her experience during the game and she described that day as the “best day ever.” Hill also described her every day struggles with her cancer, like the whole right side of her body being heavy and dizzy. Rachael asked Lauren how she deals with being diagnosed with a cancer they can’t do anything about, she said “it’s like getting the rug pulled out from under my feet and I hit the ground and I was breathless for a couple seconds.” She also said, “the hardest part has probably been the past couple of weeks since my last MRI, because the tumor has grown and they changed my prognosis again and said I probably wouldn’t make it past Christmas.” Lauren is working with The Cure Starts Now Program to help the kids that are younger and that have lost their voice due to one of the side effects to this type of cancer.