It was no ordinary ball game. The play had to be moved to a much bigger venue, enough to accommodate 10,000 people, and all tickets were sold out within a day. What made it very popular and mesmerizing was the fact that one of the college basketball players may be playing ball for the last time.
Nineteen-year-old Lauren Hill didn't really dream of becoming a basketball player; she's in love with soccer since his father was a coach of the sport. However, many people believed that given her height-she's five feet 10 inches-lean frame and long reach, she'd be better off with another sport: basketball.
Her father thought the same thing and advised his daughter to play the sport. Her first season wasn't the best simply because she didn't feel confident about it. Her second season, however, was a complete turnaround, thanks to her regular training especially during the summer. She went on to be one of the most popular and effective players in her school that she attracted attention from college coaches.
She picked to play for Cincinnati's Mount St. Joseph University and signed on October 1, 2013. But her life completely changed when the following month she was diagnosed by an inoperable and terminal brain cancer called diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG).
It's a very rare brain cancer that affects less than 150 people in the United States, and it's common among children from 5 to 7 years old. Lauren was almost past her teens, making it even rarer on her part. This cancer has no cure and zero survival rate.
Although Lauren has her awful days and emotionally weak moments, she tries to remain as positive and as active as she can, so on November 2, after asking to move the play date to something sooner so she can play, she went out to the court, amid the cheering crowd, and gave everything she got to the sport she has learned to love. The game raised over $70,000 for brain cancer research for children.
These days Lauren may be moved to hospice care as her symptoms got worse. But regardless of the outcome, she's proven us one thing: what matters is how we live each moment.
