Wheaties presents Lauren Hill a cereal box with her image on it

Lauren Hill now has something in common with basketball stars like Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan and Shaquille O'Neal.

They each have appeared on the cover of a Wheaties box.

Wheaties presented Hill with a commemorative cereal box this week in honor of the cancer-stricken Mount St. Joseph College freshman's appearance in her team's season opener Sunday afternoon. The box will not be sold at retail stores, but it's still a great gesture from the cereal company.

Hill's inspirational story has gone global in the three weeks since WKRC-TV in Cincinnati, Yahoo Sports and other outlets first shared it a few weeks ago.

Doctors discovered an inoperable tumor growing at the base of Hill's brain stem last year and diagnosed her with DIPG, a rare, inoperable pediatric brain tumor that kills 90 percent of victims within 18 months. Fearful that Hill wouldn't be strong enough to fulfill her goal of playing college basketball for the first time, the Indiana native's parents asked Mount St. Joseph to petition to have its Nov. 15 season opener moved up — a request the NCAA granted last month.

Hill not only played in that nationally televised game on Sunday but also scored the first and last baskets of the game. Since then, she has appeared on NBC News and CNN, gotten some much-needed rest and continued to raise money and awareness for DIPG research.

"This afternoon she is not feeling well," her mom posted to Hill's "Fight for a Cure" Facebook page on Tuesday. "Her body is very tired and she fighting a headache. She is extremely sensitive to light and sound today. So right now we are living in a quiet bat cave."

Hopefully the sight of her image on a Wheaties box raised Hill's spirits a bit.

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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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from Yahoo Sports http://ift.tt/1Ars6sx