CHICAGO — They’ll never forget that encounter in Boston, a lengthy meeting between Jon Lester, a cancer survivor, and 18-year-old Anthony Rizzo, who had just been diagnosed with the disease.

It’s a moment that created a special bond between Cubs teammates Rizzo and Lester, and still is discussed by the two stars seven years later.

“It’s funny. Every once in a while (Rizzo) always brings it up; he has a smile on his face when he talks about it,” Lester said before the Cubs faced the Mets on Wednesday.

“It’s definitely a meeting that I would always remember.”

Before Rizzo and Lester became teammates with the Cubs this year, they shared a special moment in 2008, when both were with the Red Sox.

Rizzo, selected by Boston in the sixth round of the 2007 draft, had started fast in the minors, but noticed a lack of energy and had put on about 15 pounds.

He went to get checked out and it was revealed he had Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and would have to undergo chemotherapy.

The first baseman headed to Boston for treatment, and the front-office staff brought Rizzo to Fenway Park to meet with Lester, who was two years removed from being diagnosed with anaplastic large cell lymphoma and a round of chemo treatments.

“There are things that teammates or peers can say to one another that a doctor or a GM or manager can’t say,” Theo Epstein, the Red Sox general manager at the time, said this week. “To be able to process it as someone who had been through it, and pass on some really helpful words to a younger person to go through it. For them to be teammates here is great. They share that special connection.”

BRAVES: Left-hander Mike Minor will miss the rest of the season after undergoing shoulder surgery.

Minor had not pitched this season after going on the disabled list April 5 with what was described as shoulder inflammation.

ROCKIES: Manager Walt Weiss had an appendectomy following two days of stomach discomfort.

No timetable has been set on when he will rejoin the club.