College athlete Lauren Hill’s fundraising inspires $15G donation

Nov. 2, 2014: In this file photo, Mount St. Joseph's Lauren Hill gives a thumbs-up as she holds the game ball during her first NCAA college basketball game against Hiram University at Xavier University in Cincinnati. (AP)

On Friday, Lauren Hill, the Mount St. Joseph basketball player whose fight with terminal brain cancer has put her on the national stage, was named The View’s first “Viewer of the Week,” and the show’s hosts announced a big donation in her name.

Hill appeared via satellite from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and was honored for her fundraising efforts for children’s cancer.

“We want to put a spotlight on a young lady full of such strength and compassion. She will make you want to be a better person,” host Rosie Perez said.

“It’s kind of hard to just focus on you and not on others,” Hill, 19, said. “With this disease, there’s nothing you can do, and I just kept thinking about all these other kids and I have to be that voice.”

Hill has fundraised for The Cure Starts Now Foundation, which was founded after Ohio girl Elena Desserich died from Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), a terminal, inoperable form of brain cancer, at 6 years old. Desserich’s story gained national attention after her parents wrote about the little girl leaving love notes around the house for her parents to find after her she would die.

Hill was diagnosed in November 2013.

“[Researchers] really think it’s one of the biggest bullies on the block, so it’s going to find the cure for all cancers,” Brooke Desserich, Elena Desserich’s mother and founder of The Cure Starts Now, said of DIPG. The foundation has raised over $2.8 million so far.

During the show, host Whoopi Goldberg announced that one of their advertisers, RetailMeNot.com, decided to donate $15,000 to The Cure Starts Now in Hill’s name.

Hill’s goal is to raise $2.2 million— which would symbolize the number 22 the girl wore on the court.