Mr. Geiger's association with sports began when he was 5 and joined a T-ball team sponsored by the 69th Street Athletic Association. He later played baseball and roller hockey and had just started to play lacrosse at the Haverford School when he learned he had a crippling disease.

On June 23, 1995, his 11th birthday, doctors diagnosed Ewing's sarcoma, a rare bone cancer that attacked Mr. Geiger's upper right arm.

Without amputation, doctors predicted he would be dead in three months, his mother, Kathleen, told an Inquirer reporter.

Knowing how important sports were to her son, she sought other options and discovered a unique surgery.

In November 1995, after he had chemotherapy and radiation treatments, surgeons at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York removed his cancerous humerus bone and attached his lower arm to his shoulder, leaving him with a shortened right arm.

Born righthanded, he taught himself to write with both hands. He refused special treatment in class and rejoined the Haverford School's sports program for spring soccer. "Stuff happens, and you cannot do anything about it. You just have to live your life," he said in 2000.

Though he had skied only once before, he joined an adaptive-learning ski program in 1997 and earned a silver medal in the giant slalom after a week on the slopes.

He later won three gold medals.

Mr. Geiger played lacrosse in high school at Haverford. In 2002 he received the Most Valuable Player Award from Eagles Fly for Leukemia, which supports pediatric cancer and leukemia research.

He played lacrosse for two years at the University of New Haven and then transferred to Neumann University in Aston and played lacrosse there.

Starting as a senior in high school, he had a part-time job at Kohl's Department Store in Havertown and in the summer worked in his grandparents' landscaping business.

He didn't compensate for his disability and even drove the pickup truck, his mother said.

Mr. Geiger took off the spring semester from Neumann in 2007 and worked as assistant manager at Swiss Farms in Havertown. He was planning to return to Neumann in the fall of 2007 when, on his mother's birthday, Aug. 7, his doctor told him the cancer had returned and was in his lungs.

He underwent intensive chemotherapy and coped well, his mother said.

He played in alumni lacrosse games at New Haven and Neumann; attended sports games with friends; and joined in last year's Phillies World Series celebration on Broad Street, she said.

Mr. Geiger was a fan of Philadelphia professional sports teams including the Wings lacrosse team. He could answer any sports trivia question, his mother said, and hoped to become a sports agent.

In addition to his mother, Mr. Geiger is survived by his father, Edward Sr., and a brother, Bryan.

Friends may call from 6 to 9 p.m. today and 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. tomorrow at Stretch Funeral Home, 236 E. Eagle Rd., Havertown.

A Funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. tomorrow at St. Denis Church, 2401 St. Denis Lane, Havertown. Burial will be in the church cemetery.