By Jeff Lipton
But life changed for him and his parents about a year ago when he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. After an operation to remove the tumor and several chemotherapy sessions - with four weeks of chemo left - his parents are hopeful and confident that Jason, now 13 and a student at Woodmere Middle School, has beaten the illness.
When he was in the hospital at Beth Israel North in Manhattan, a doctor contacted the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses and told the organization about Jason's inspirational story.
The foundation asked Jason what his wish would be and the teenager said he longed for his whole family to go to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The foundation granted that desire and the Blacks - father Andy, mother Christine, brother Keith, 15, and sister Kim, 9, will join him for about a week at the Olympics in an all-expenses paid trip.
But the foundation went it one step better. His story was so inspirational that he was chosen by Chevrolet as one of its 23 Make-A-Wish children and volunteers who will have the honor of participating in the torch relay. So at 2:54 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 23, Jason will be handed the torch on 4th Avenue, from 9th to 5th streets, in Brooklyn and will carry the flame for about .2 miles, where he will hand it off to another torchbearer.
"I still can't believe I am going to do it," Jason said after being told that he will carry the torch. "It's just so amazing."
"They were looking for people who are an inspiration and that description fits Jason to a T," his father said. "He's so excited about it. But this is one of those double-edged things."
Even though the family is extremely honored that Jason was selected to be a torchbearer, they would trade it in in a heartbeat if it meant that Jason never developed a brain tumor.
Jason was extremely healthy and showed no signs that he was seriously ill, until the fall of 2000, about five weeks before he was diagnosed, when he began to vomit every morning, his father said.
"We just thought it was the flu," his father said, adding that there was no history of the health problem in the family. After he was diagnosed with the tumor, Jason underwent an operation to remove it on Oct. 20, 2000, his father said. The family was told that the tumor had been growing for about two years.
"It's been a very tough year. There is no history of this in our family. There just was no warning," Mr. Black said.
Jason went back to Woodmere Middle School, where he is an eighth-grader, in September and has resumed many of his usual activities. He has even gone to soccer practice to watch his teammates play, his father said, with the hopes of his son rejoining them on the practice field someday soon. Jason's love is soccer, having played it - and performed at an exceptionally high level - since he was five years old. He had been playing as a midfielder for the Bulldogs for about three years when he became ill. His coach, who was one of the first to visit him in the hospital, has assured him when he is ready, his spot on the team has been reserved.
"He's really the nicest kid in the world," his father said of Jason.
"The doctor has given us as close to a clean bill of health as we can get."
Mary O'Connor, a spokesperson for the Chevrolet Olympic Torch Relay, said Jason's story was truly inspiring. When asked by Chevrolet who he would have nominated to run with the Olympic torch, Jason said his neurosurgeon "because he saved his life."
O'Connor said his one wish was to go to the winter games with his family "because he wanted to do something with his family that he will likely not be able to do again."
O'Connor added, "He's a remarkable kid. He's very much about family."
"He's a cool kid," said Keri Kasalonis, a spokesperson for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
The Olympic torch relay began on Dec. 4 in Atlanta - the last place the Olympic flame rested on U.S. soil - and will end on Feb. 8 in time for opening ceremonies at Rice-Eccles Olympic Stadium in Salt Lake City, where the Olympic Cauldron will be lit. The 65-day relay will travel more than 13,500 miles through 46 states including Alaska. The torch relay, which is sponsored by Coca-Cola as well as Chevrolet, will visit more than 125 U.S. cities and run through 22 state capitals. In addition to the 23 torchbearers selected for the Make-A-Wish, a total of 11,500 will carry the torch, 3,505 of whom are selected by Chevrolet. The torch will be carried via Chevy vehicles, airplane, train, ship, dog sled, skier, horse-drawn sleigh, snowmobile, ice skaters and other unique ways, torch relay organizers said.
The flame will travel an average of 208 miles per day during a 12-hour day and the Olympic flame will stop for two celebrations each day.
This marks the fifth time the torch relay has been conducted in the U.S. It was held to open the games in Squaw Valley in 1960, Lake Placid in 1980, Los Angeles in 1984 and Atlanta in 1996.
