Inspiring Lauren Hill Dies at 19

CINCINNATI (AP) — Lauren Hill, a freshman at a Ohio university who fought an inoperable brain tumor to play college basketball, has died. She was 19.

Brooke Desserich, co-founder of Hill's nonprofit foundation The Cure Starts Now, told The Associated Press that Hill died at a hospital on Friday.

Hill's fight to not let her diagnosis dictate her final days rallied her Mount St. Joseph University team behind her and convinced the NCAA and others to move up her team's season opener to allow her a chance to play. She made two layups in the opening game.

Along the way, she became known simply as Lauren, someone who had a knack for encouraging others to make the most of every day by the way she persevered.

She also helped to raise more than $1.5 million for research into cancer.