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This is very sad news for a great women's college basketball icon.
Tennessee's Pat Summitt plans to coach "as long as the good Lord is willing" despite recently being diagnosed with early onset dementia.
In a statement from Summitt released by the university on Tuesday, the Hall of Fame coach said she visited with doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., after the end of the 2010-11 basketball season ended and was diagnosed with early onset dementia – Alzheimer's type – over the summer.
"I plan to continue to be your coach," Summitt said. "Obviously, I realize I may have some limitations with this condition since there will be some good days and some bad days."
The Knoxville News Sentinel and Washington Post first reported Summitt's condition. The coach did not immediately return messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Tennessee athletics director Joan Cronan told the AP that Summitt first thought her symptoms were side effects from medicine she was taking to treat rheumatoid arthritis. She said Summitt appears to be feeling better after beginning to get treatment for the dementia condition and speaking publicly about it.
"She's ready to fight this and move on," Cronan said. "She had to come to grips with how she wanted to face it."
Summitt, 59, told the Knoxville paper she plans to rely on medication and mental exercises to manage the progressive condition that destroys cognitive abilities over time.
I know many of us have faced family members who have suffered from this disease and many others that are just as horrific. My heart goes out to you all as well. My mother suffered with Type 1 Diabetes since I was three years old and after it took her sight in 1991, when she was declared legally blind which is what terrified her the most, it led the way to her ultimate demise in 2004. She was tough though and lived much longer than I or her doctors ever thought possible to which I am very grateful. It looks like Summitt is a fighter too.
