ROCKFORD — Trying to make people happy was a way of life for former Rockford High School athlete Lindsey John.

So when battling cancer meant chemotherapy sessions, the 23-year-old made others laugh by showing up at her appointments wearing colored wigs or costumes.

“She would dress as a banana and bring bananas to pass around. She dressed up as a mailman and delivered Payday candy bars. She did all sorts of stuff like that, just trying to make people happy,” said her father, Michael John.

This week, John lost her three-year fight with inoperable brain cancer. True to her spirit, she will be buried in a hot pink casket.

John’s health struggle began when, after a short run, the former high school track star noticed her left leg was numb. She’d had similar issues with her lip and a finger on her left hand.

After a battery of tests, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor on Dec. 26, 2006.

The news launched her family on an emotional roller coaster. But they were helped along the way by John’s positive attitude and by a plethora of friends who supported the family, Michael John said.

“It’s been mostly happy times. We’ve tried to enjoy her life. It was three years of living life to the fullest,” he said.

She visited Ireland and France and went to parties with her friends, who would pick her up and bring her home, even when she started using a wheelchair.

“She wasn’t sitting around, moping or getting depressed, so we couldn’t sit around and mope.”

John graduated with honors from Rockford High in 2004 and was a state champion in track and cross country.

She studied marketing at Michigan State University and graduated with honors in May, despite having to travel from East Lansing to Grand Rapids for chemotherapy treatments every other week.

She had hoped to be the maid of honor at her sister Shayna’s wedding last Saturday, but was hospitalized the past two weeks as her health declined.

Instead, the family arranged to have the wedding broadcast online via Skype, with a friend reading the toast Lindsey had prepared for her sister, Michael John said.

For Jenny Moulds, John’s positive attitude made a huge difference after her 7-year-old daughter, McKenna, was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

John become a friend to the Rockford girl, helping alleviate some rough moments as McKenna went through more than 26 months of chemotherapy and medical procedures.

Seeing John always was a thrill for McKenna, who now is in clinical remission.

“They would show off their port scars to each other,” Jenny Moulds said, referring to the access areas where their chemotherapy drugs were administered. “McKenna and our youngest daughter, Kayla, had a ball wearing all of John’s brightly-colored wigs.

“She showed her strength and courage to all of us who knew her.”

In addition to her father, John is survived by her mother, Darlene, her brother Jason John, her sister and brother-in-law, Shayna and Trent McCloskey, many family and friends.

Visitation will be 3 to 9 p.m. Friday at Pederson Funeral Home in Rockford. A funeral Mass will be 11 a.m. Saturday at Our Lady Of Consolation Catholic Church in Rockford.

E-mail Nardy Bickel: nbickel@grpress.com