Book details a life saved

FRAMINGHAM -- Fingers locked in front of him, elbows resting on the table, he looks into the distance.

John Link is recalling the day his life changed forever.

He was in the parking lot at Algonquin Regional High School in Northborough, talking with friends, when his parents arrived to take him to a doctor's appointment. That's when Fred and Pat Link told their son he had cancer.

''They told me it was going to be a different life than I was accustomed to," recalled Link, who competed in track, basketball, and baseball at Algonquin (class of 1998). ''I still didn't know that much about it; I didn't know what chemotherapy was. The only thing I associated cancer with was death, or the elderly, or people that smoke. I was pretty limited, being 17."

Link is 25 today, and seven years in remission from an aggressive bone cancer, osteosarcoma. He's no longer limited when it comes to knowledge about cancer, and now he's reaching out to others who might be.

Link has self-published a book called ''The Link to Beating Cancer," which chronicles the trying time in his life when he had to give up athletics, and much more than that. He said the purpose of the book -- which is sold for $15 on his website www.linktobeat.com -- was three-fold: as a therapeutic measure for himself, to help others, and to raise money for cancer research.

Link finished cancer treatments in February 1998 and didn't start writing the book until five years later because ''before that, it took me a while on my own to cope with what I had just been through." The cancer was found in the femur bone of his left leg, and Link was treated with three months of chemotherapy before undergoing surgery, then six more months of chemotherapy. Doctors implanted a titanium prosthesis after removing a piece of cancerous bone.

Link's paperback book is a quick read at 152 pages and includes 12 chapters that detail his precancer life, his illness and the support he received, and his postcancer life. One theme is how his perspective was forever altered.

''I have a much greater appreciation for life, the little things," he said. ''I had a catheter in my chest to infuse medicines and draw blood, so for a year I couldn't take a normal shower. Things like that. I loved going to school because it was an escape. And the other thing is that it brought my family a lot closer. They rallied around me, were there for me every day. I started to see things in a different light.

''One of the things I stress in the book is that cancer is in somebody but it becomes a part of the other people around it. One person might be going through it physically, but a lot of people are going through it."

Link, who now works as a program analyst after graduating from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (Class of 2002), said that before he was diagnosed with cancer, he was a typical rebellious teenager.

Fred and Pat Link, who moved to Northborough from Maryland when John was 3, said the cancer diagnosis changed the dynamic of the parent-son relationship.

''Our family was solid, together," Pat said.

John has two older siblings -- David, 32, and Peter, 29. Although he is the youngest child, he's taught his family about courage and a positive approach.

''It's been very special for Fred and I to look and see John as an adult, knowing what he's been through and see where he is now," Pat Link said. ''We kind of sit back and look. We see how he is giving back [to cancer research] and we are just so pleased to see who he is. He was so strong and determined and hopeful throughout the whole thing. Never once did he say 'Why me?' "

Fred Link remembered John asking two questions.

''When we saw the doctor and they read the MRI, he stopped short and said 'Am I going to die? Am I going to lose my leg?' I think once he crossed off the fact this wouldn't end in a disaster, he kept very positive about it."

John Link remains upbeat despite having to give up the sport he loves the most: baseball. In his book, he recalls playing recreational softball after his cancer treatment and hurting his leg while running from first to third. He broke the femur in his healthy right leg and recalled the pain as the worst he'd ever felt.

''My problem was that I couldn't give up sports," Link writes in his book. ''This was a shot to the gut as to how true it was that I couldn't be physical and as competitive."

Link said he's since tried other less rigorous sports, such as golf, and enjoys fishing.

He also participated in Sunday's Walk to Cure Cancer, held in Worcester, and said one of his goals is to work more closely with the American Cancer Society to raise money and awareness for cancer research.

''It's been a big part of me, and now I'm realizing how much a part of me it is," he said.

Link describes his physical condition as ''great."

''I get checkups every year," he said. ''It started off where they kept a close eye on it, and the checkups were every month, then every three months, every six months, and now it's every year. Technically, I'm in remission. But with cancer it's never a clear road. You always have to be careful.

''But so far," he said, ''everything is going great."