Boy With Rare Bone Disorder Becomes Quarterback for a Day and Scores a Touchdown for the NFL Carolina Panthers

His dream was coming true.

Stadium lights were shining in the nighttime Carolina sky. Fans dressed in their team’s trademark black and blue colors filled the stands. And 12-year-old Jase Garland was heading out onto the field, going into an NFL game for the Carolina Panthers.

After everything he’d been through, the experience meant even more.

Two years ago, his mom, Erin, started to notice bruises building up on her son’s body. which led to a troubling diagnosis. The Asheville, North Carolina boy had Myelodysplastic syndrome, a rare bone condition that can lead to leukemia—and Jase would need a bone marrow transplant.

Last year, after the boy got his transplant, the Make-A-Wish Foundation notified him that he could choose a dream to help carry him through his recovery, giving him something to look forward to amid endless doctor appointments.

Jase wanted to be the quarterback for the Carolina Panthers.

Indeed, visions of him wearing that black, blue, and silver uniform uplifted the football-obsessed kid through all the challenges that he faced and all the pain that he endured.

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Finally this month, Make-A-Wish and the Carolina Panthers made his dream come true. Garland, who will enter seventh grade this fall, got to suit-up and take the field with his team.

He met head coach Dave Canales and Panther quarterbacks Bryce Young and Andy Dalton. He signed a contract with the team’s general manager, Dan Morgan, and drew up a play with offensive coordinator, Brad Idzik.

He hit the weight room with a few players, met the team’s mascot SirPurr, and received the long-awaited helmet and jersey— #26 — with his last name stitched across the back.

Finally, during the intra-squad scrimmage at Panthers’ Fan Fest night August 2nd, coaches sent Jase out onto the field. He took the ball on a handoff just inside the 10-yard-line, raced around the left end and headed toward the end zone.

Touchdown!

The Panthers players circled around him to celebrate. Jase did a couple of dance moves. Center Austin Corbett picked him up in the air, a little like how baby Simba was lifted above Pride Rock in The Lion King movie.

For a moment, joy banished all the fears and anxieties from his family—and Jase’s touchdown was an exclamation point on how he handled the whole ordeal.

“So it sounds maybe cliche,” Erin Garland began in a feature story by the Carolina Panthers.  “…He’s just taking this like a champ because he’s had to be away from everybody for so long, so it’s just, it’s been—I’m impressed. I’m very impressed by him.”

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The Carolina Panthers and the Make-A-Wish Foundation gave Jase a spotlight and a chance to chase his dream. And when the opportunity arose just inside the 10-yard-line, Jase did the exact same thing he’s been doing since he first received the dreadful diagnosis.

He raced past all the obstacles until he found his triumph on the other side.

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