Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
Mike Lowell, Cancer Survivor
Mike Lowell, the Sox’s third baseman, was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1999, at the age of 24. The diagnosis came just a week before the opening of spring training, where he would have been a rookie. He missed two months of the season while undergoing radiation, which made him so sick he was unable to keep down even the smallest meals. Despite the exhaustion he must have felt, Lowell returned to baseball a month after ending treatment, and managed to play a solid season.
Lowell refers to his cancer as “the scariest thing I’ve ever been through."
"My whole world came crashing down that afternoon,” he said, referring to his diagnosis in an interview in “Baseball Digest” back in October, 2003. Since then Lowell, originally with the Florida Marlins, was traded to the Red Sox, and has become a Gold Glove fielder who this year broke the Red Sox record for most runs batted in for a third baseman. His all-around play in the four-game World Series, both batting and hitting, earned him the coveted Series MVP award. Mike Lowell: cancer survivor, and World Series MVP.
All of us who’ve been touched by cancer share one thing in common: that moment when your life stands still. When you think you’re going to die. For some of us, that fear comes true. But thankfully, many of us are able to soldier on, leading our lives with grace and courage. Jon Lester and Mike Lowell didn’t let cancer stop them from reaching the pinnacle of their chosen profession, baseball. And, as a fellow survivor, I feel an immense sense of pride in their accomplishment.
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