Lauren Hill, a 19-year old with brain cancer, hopes to play one game of collegiate basketball.

Hill was a basketball standout in Lawrenceburg High School in Indiana. When her birthday rolled around on her senior high school year, she wanted to commemorate it by doing something special.

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Her commemoration was a simple phone call that confirmed her intentions to play basketball for Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati.

After the call though, her basketball skills seemed to decline. She recalls that her ball handling was sloppy and that she wasn't keeping up with the other girls. She figured she was just out of shape.

However, things worsened, and Hill began to experience dizziness, vertigo, and numbness in her tongue while practicing. Her head-on collision with one of her teammates prompted her parents to bring her to Riley's Children's Hospital.

There, a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan revealed that she had a tumor intertwining with the nerves in the base of her brain stem.

She was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Giloma (DIPG). To date, this is identified as an inoperable type of brain cancer that has had no success rate at survival. Doctors gave her two years to live.

While other people may get disheartened by this news, Hill did not give up. "Never thought about sitting back and not living life anymore," she said.

She spoke to her coach and teammates and encouraged them not to give up, saying that if any of them slacked off, she would come after them.

Now, a year after her diagnosis, she still holds her dream as sacred. She told Mount St. Joseph basketball head coach Dan Benjamin that all she wants is one game.

Mount St. Joseph is doing everything they can to make Hill's dream come true. Their first game was originally scheduled for November 15 against Hiram College.

With the NCAA's blessing though, Hiram College has agreed to play against Mount St. Joseph on November 2, making Hill's dream a reality. 

TagsLauren Hill, Lawrenceburg High School, Mount St. Joseph