Jon Lester has cancer

by SweSox on Sep 1, 2006 7:13 PM EDT in News Comment 3 comments

According to the statement released by the Lester family, Jon suffers from Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma. This is a form of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and thus a form of cancer. I won't try to summarize the disease, the prognosis or the treatment. My medical knowledge is far too limited for me to be able to do that in a credible way. What I can do is provide you with some links to different web sites so that you can easily find information on the condition if you want to read up on it. Here are a bunch.

Cancerbackup (Thanks to britsox)
eMedicine
Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma at Wikipedia
Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma at Wikipedia

I apologize profusely for resorting to cliché, but this is the type of news that puts things in perspective. Losing streaks, fielding a AAA lineup and a useless bullpen all suddenly seem a lot less important. Again, I'm no medical expert, but I know enough about cancer to have tremendous respect for it in all its ugly shapes and forms.

I'm not by any means a religious man, but I'll nevertheless be saying a prayer for Jon and his family.

God bless, and good luck. Red Sox Nation will keep you in our hearts.

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Re: Jon Lester has cancer

The Globe has an AP story up:

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2006/09/01/rookie_pitcher_has_lymphoma/

We've got TWO Jews on this team, Mel! -- Denis Leary

by SweSox on Sep 1, 2006 7:17 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Re: Jon Lester has cancer

About the only thing good about this is that Boston has so many good cancer doctors. The Globe article makes it sound like this is relatively treatable, and Lester is young and one can hope for a full recovery, I'd suppose.

by RickD on Sep 1, 2006 7:45 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Re: Jon Lester has cancer

Well said.

Reports like this certainly do put things in perspective. Let us all pray (in our own way, as we each feel fit) for a full recovery for this young man. And as we hear folks bemoan the fall of our beloved Red Sox in the last month, I hope we'll all gently remind our fellow fans that at the end of the day, baseball is a game. A game for which we are all impassioned, but it's still just a game.

My son and I attended our first Sox game together on 6/21 at Fenway, and Jon Lester was the starting, and winning, pitcher. Ever since then, Lester has been one of my son's favorite players.

Needless to say, I have a very soft spot in my heart for this young pitcher.

I hope that Red Sox Nation will rally it's passion and strength towards wishing this young man a full recovery, and put the standings of our beloved Sox on the back burner for now.

by wmvermont on Sep 1, 2006 9:26 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs