Binge Sports: The Latest on Lauren Hill

Lauren Hill continues to amaze me. This remarkable young lady caught the attention of people all over the world by living out her dream of playing college basketball while battling an inoperable brain tumor, but this story has evolved into so much more. Welcome back to Binge Sports and our continuing coverage of the amazing Indiana girl that continues to inspire.

If you’re unfamiliar to the story, please do yourself a favor and get caught up on my previous articles. Just click on the title of what you’ve missed and come on back.

The Inspiring Story of Lauren Hill

An Update on Lauren Hill

Lauren Hill Is At It Again

Coach Lauren Hill

Lauren Hill set two goals for herself in 2014. She wanted to play college basketball. Check. She wanted to raise one million dollars in the fight against pediatric cancer. Check, and then some. At this time, Lauren has helped to raise close to 1.4 million dollars to battle diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) through The Cure Starts Now Foundation. Executive director Brooke Desserich explains.

“Lauren has truly captured the nation’s heart with her dedication and persistence in the face of adversity. The fact that she has decided to spend her precious few months left on this earth to make sure that no other children face the same fate is incredible.”

This is who Lauren Hill is. This is who she wants to be. She sets goals and she reaches them. Let’s all remember that she’s not even supposed to be here. Doctors gave her a very slim chance of even making it through 2014, but here it is March 3, 2015 and she’s still fighting. But that doesn’t mean she can’t have a little fun too.

In 2014, Lauren was named the basketball homecoming queen at Lawrenceburg (Ind.) High School. Her first goal of 2015 was to crown her successor. And of course we know what happened. Simply put by her mother, Lisa Hill, “Another goal met.”

I wish I could say that Lauren has the chance to do these kinds of things all the time, but we all know that can’t happen. The fact of the matter remains that she’s still sick and it does take its toll. She gets fatigued. She can’t function normally some days. The pain sets in and I can’t even imagine what her body goes through on a day to day basis. But she continues to try and fight through, just so from time to time she can get out. That brings us to the night of February 6th.

After spending a week in the hospital, she was able to attend a private ceremony at school just for her. But this wasn’t just any ceremony. To commemorate all she’s done, Lauren was given an honorary doctorate, the Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters to be exact. Surrounded by 200 of her closest family, friends, and teammates, Lauren once again showed remarkable strength and courage by getting up from her wheelchair and walking down the aisle to receive her degree from school president, Anthony Arentz. Just to put this in perspective, another person that was given this type of honorary degree was Neil Armstrong.

Through all of this, I’m sure Lauren has met a ton of people. But with all the fundraisers, treatments, and pain, she’s still found time to hang out with one of the people she’s been trying so desperately to help.

Luke Knapke, only four years old and better known to the world as “Super Luke”, whom you saw in the video I posted in the last article, is battling his own tumors. He and Lauren have become very close and honestly, I just couldn’t let the chance go by to get these pictures up. Just look at the smile on this young man’s face.

On February 24th, for reasons just like these, Lauren Hill was named as a recipient of the Governor’s Courage Award by Ohio governor John Kasich. I’d like to say that she was on hand to receive the honor, but she wasn’t. But it’s actually for a good reason.

That same night, in a private room at the hospital, Lauren spent the night eating sandwiches and celebrating with her teammates for their season-ending banquet. Think about that for a moment. Through a special request granted by the NCAA, Mount Saint Joseph’s first game was moved up due to the fear that Lauren wouldn’t be strong enough to even make it there. Yet, here she is celebrating the full season. Truly remarkable.

Now I could go ahead and tell you what their record was for the year, but it doesn’t really matter, does it? What Lauren has accomplished is nothing short of miraculous and reaches far beyond the importance of the win-loss column. The life lessons she’s been teaching and that those around her have learned make the record quite insignificant, as so eloquently put by her teammate, Brooke Mosler:

“Thank you for changing my life. You will always be my sister and I will always cherish every moment we’ve had together forever.”

She inspires every single person that she comes into contact with, which is why she’s also been named as The Cure Starts Now Foundation’s Chief Motivational Officer.

And the honors just keep on coming. A small goal of any kid growing up is to be immortalized on a baseball card (or a basketball card as the case may be). Well, Upper Deck has made that happen. Check out the brand new Lauren Hill rookie card.

Autographed cards can be purchased for $50.00 and unsigned cards are available for $10.00. You can buy these and other Lauren Hill merchandise such as jerseys, t-shirts, and wristbands simply by clicking right HERE.

And, of course, you can always continue to make donations to The Cure Starts Now Foundation at their website, www.thecurestartsnow.org.

I suppose this would be the place where I summarize everything and write some words to inspire you or tell you how absolutely amazing I think this young woman is, but instead I’ll give you a quote from Lauren Hill herself:

“Day by day, I hope my message has resided through everyone, that just even more that it’s precious every amount of time you get with someone. No material item matters. Every moment you get with someone is a moment that’s blessed, really blessed.”

Normally, this is where I would just write “Anything else?” But when it comes to Lauren Hill, I already know the answer.

Please keep checking back in for more updates on this incredible story. Feel free to leave comments below or follow me on Twitter @BingeSports and/or @THElukenorris. #NeverGiveUp #Layup4Lauren