Page 17 - BUZZ Magazine - Issue No. 3 - Summer 2022 | University of Rochester

RINGING THAT

BELL

Jack Harrison is proof
that anything is possible.

by KRISTINE KAPPEL THOMPSON

en-year-old Jack Harrison loves his Marvel
TT-shirt. He got it at Comic-Con in New York
City in October 2019 when he was on a trip with
his grandmother and big brother, Eli. That’s when
he met Paul Rudd—actor and Ant Man star.
Rudd autographed everything of Jack’s, even
his wheelchair.

Today, Jack doesn't need a wheelchair. A brain
cancer survivor and a 2020 Golisano Children’s
Hospital Miracle Kid, he prefers to ride a bike.
“He loves to do everything,” says Sara Harrison,
Jack’s mom. “We’re living a very different life The bell Jack rang when he completed 60
than we did a few years ago.” weeks of chemotherapy treatments [above]
and a brain scan showing Jack's tumor [below].
In 2018, the Harrisons, a military family now living
in Fairport, N.Y., were living in Germany. Sara and
her husband, Eric—a lieutenant colonel in the
Army—started to notice that their son was slipping
and falling more than the typical six-year-old. His
handwriting changed drastically, too. They knew
something was going on.

They took Jack to several German physicians and
specialists and soon learned that their son had
astrocytoma, one of the most common types of
brain cancer. A second opinion with the Children’s
Hospital of Philadelphia confirmed Jack’s diagnosis.
A tumor was lodged deep in his brain and needed
to be treated.

[Pictured left] During Jack’s treatment, the Harrisons brought home
a puppy, a pug named Winston. Neither Winston nor Cooper, their
other pup, is ever far away from Jack and his brother, Eli.
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