Northern State University Men’s Basketball coach Don Meyer has been the recipient of the National Award on Wednesday night, the day on which the ceremony had been taped during the annual ESPY Awards in Los Angeles. The program was aired on television on Sunday on ESPN. Meyer was presented the JIMMY V AWARD for Perseverance by the actor Rob Lowe.

Meyer is the third person who has been the receiver of the JIMMY V Award, which is given to any personality belonging to the world of sports who has achieved success in the respective field after being able to overcome immense obstacles in the path only due to sheer zeal and perseverance.

The award was presented to Meyer in an effort to honor the determination he had displayed to make a recovery after he had been badly injured in a car crash that had taken place in September last year. The accident was near fatal and had almost killed Meyer, somehow he had survived but had been inflicted with critical injuries. While the surgeries were being performed by the doctors to revive him, it was found out that Meyer’s intestines and liver were infected with cancer. This was another blow that he had to deal with, while recovering from the post accident traumas.

Meyer had spent 55 days in the hospital, undergoing the recovery phase, he lost a part of his leg in the ordeal and it was his sheer will that kept him going. In his acceptance, he said that he had a gut feeling that very soon a cure for cancer would be invented.