Lymphoma survivor Lester's father also has cancer

5/25/2008 7:41 PM

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -Jon Lester's father has a highly treatable form of cancer, the Boston Red Sox left-hander and lymphoma survivor said in an interview with ESPN.

``It's very different than mine,'' Lester told the network, which aired the interview Sunday before Boston's first trip of the season to Lester's native Seattle area.

``His is slow growing,'' Lester said of his father, John, who also has lymphoma. ``His is something that he's going to die with, not die from. ... He's doing really well. He has to go through the treatments ... but at the same time, it's going to knock it down to where he can live a normal, healthy life.''

Lester (3-3), who threw a no-hitter against Kansas City in his previous start, lost a 6-3 decision to the Oakland Athletics on Sunday, yielding seven hits, four runs and two walks over five innings.

He also won Boston's World Series-clinching game against Colorado last fall, but Lester is best known for his remarkable return to the majors last year after being diagnosed with a rare form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2006. He went 4-0 in 11 starts late in the regular season.

Lester is from Tacoma, Wash., and he went public with his father's illness because he didn't want his hometown fans wondering about his father's hair loss from treatment when the Red Sox open a three-game series Monday against the Seattle Mariners.

``I think (Jon Lester) is handling it, and the prognosis is great,'' said Boston manager Terry Francona, who has known about Lester's father's illness since last month. ``You don't have a choice. What are you going to do? You go do your job. There are a lot of things that happen. Either you handle it, or you don't handle it.''

Lester planned to see his father Sunday night for the first time since the diagnosis. He carried a Red Sox World Series hat with him as a gift.

``Even my dad said, 'Well, now I look up to you,''' said Lester, who was pronounced cancer-free in December 2006 after treatment for his lymphoma. ``After the no-hitter, a lot of different media people called him, and he was very, very frustrated he couldn't tell them why he was so proud of me. Now he's telling everybody, and he wanted me to tell people. He wanted me to get it off my chest and tell as many people as I can about it.''