Once a Tar Heel, always a Tar Heel.

Being a student-athlete at Carolina was one of the great honors of my life. It taught me perseverance, hard work and commitment, and it was True Blue Love that carried us to four ACC Swimming and Diving Championships.

Those lessons have never mattered more. Two of my three children, Charlotte and Cooper, live with FAM Disorder, an ultra-rare genetic condition with only about 20 known patients worldwide. It causes lifelong challenges that can include developmental delays, seizures, difficulty with movement, and it requires around-the-clock care. When they were diagnosed, there was no research and no treatment. So in 2021, my husband Doug and I started the FAM177A1 Research Fund to build the path to a cure ourselves. Watch our story to meet our FAM Warriors.

Our all-volunteer, parent-led foundation has raised more than $1 million. With it, we've built a global research network spanning Yale, UCLA, Hebrew University and more, along with a patient registry, animal and cellular disease models, a biobank, and a gene therapy program now underway. Learn more at curefam.org.

Our Carolina swimming and diving family is leading the way. My teammates Melissa Douse Cole, Meredith Gardner, Erin Cobb Hoeg, Jenny Hinshaw, Steve Martel, and Staci Sawyer Watson have committed a $10,000 match. Every gift from the Tar Heel family will be doubled, up to $10,000, through Dec 31, 2026.

Tar Heels have been in this fight with us from the start, cheering us on from afar and at our fundraising gala year after year.

Staci Sawyer Watson (UNC '91), Steve Martel (UNC '92), Jill Minich Hawkins (UNC '94), Jenny Hinshaw (UNC '90) and Melissa Douse Cole (UNC '92) at the 2026 Soaring For A Cure FAM JAM in Seattle, WA

Erin Cobb Hoeg (UNC '96), Jill Hawkins (UNC '94), Jenny Hinshaw (UNC '90) at the 2024 FAM JAM Gala in Seattle, WA.

Emma Cole (UNC '21) visiting the Hawkins family in Seattle. Jill, Cooper (15, FAM Warrior)

Former athletes, classmates, fans, anyone who bleeds Carolina blue: whether you give $25 or $2,500, your gift goes twice as far for every FAM Warrior.

Carolina taught me that championships are won together. The same perseverance, hard work and True Blue Love that brought us those titles can help lead FAM Warriors to brighter days.

Go Heels, and thank you.

Jill Hawkins (UNC '94)
Co-founder and President, FAM177A1 Research Fund

Tar Heels for a Cure

Rallying the Carolina family against an ultra-rare disease