Notre Dame Softball Team presents check to Memorial Hospital

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- On Wednesday afternoon, the University of Notre Dame's Softball team and their coach took a swing at cancer. The team visited Memorial Hospital and presented a check for $25,355.62. The check is in honor of Deanna Gumpf's 6-year-old daughter Tatum.  Gumpf is the head coach for the softball team.

Tatum was diagnosed with leukemia back in 2010 and has been undergoing chemotherapy at Memorial Hospital. Chloe Saganowich a ND softball player said, "Tatum is a fighter, she's a great girl, she's not going to give up, we are all behind her 100 percent, anything we we can do we are going to do."

Deanna Gumpf said Tatum has been going through a maintenance phase now and, "we are hoping her treatments will be over in Sept. and she's done."

Saganowich said, 'This year we stepped it up a bit and we added a trivia night and we doubled the amount of fund-raising, so it was really successful this year." Notre Dame held the nation's previous record by raising $12,046 in 2011, shattering that mark by over double in 2012.

The donated money will go towards granting wishes for children who are battling cancer while getting treatment at the clinic.

Tatum said she likes coming to Memorial Hospital because she has made a lot of friends, and  "they (the staff) make me feel better."

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