The Story of Team Desiree

[Shana A]

The Story of Team Desiree
Desiree Hines, of G Philly's New Who's Who, is in the battle of her life

Posted by Natalie Hope McDonald on 8/2/2012 at 11:10AM

http://blogs.phillymag.com/gphilly/2012/08/02/story-team-desiree/

We were proud to include musical prodigy Desiree Hines in our "New Who's Who" last fall. Not only is Hines breaking boundaries as a transgender African-American classical organist in America, but she's a truly talented force who's been spending the last year in a rigorous music program at the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

But everything changed in March – just two months after Hines lost her mother. In the middle of her junior year, as she was serving as the Isabel Curdy Endowed Organ Scholar at Grace and Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Kansas City, she received shocking news.

"I was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer," says Hines on her Facebook page. As she returned from spring break she was rushed to the hospital where the 32-year-old was diagnosed with stage-four Neuro Endocrine Carcinoma, a rare type of cancer in her pancreas and liver.