Update August 19, 2000.  NBC (most locations channel 4) will do a piece on Jason Vale the Miracle Man.  This will be shown on the program EXTRA and will be shown at different times throughout the country.  I was told it can be as early as 7:00PM on the 20th on the West Coast to as late at 12:05AM on the East Coast (Monday).  Check your local listings.

Jason Vale
(The Miracle Man)

(Editor: I asked the incredible Jason Vale to write a few words about the medical obstacles he overcame to be a champion in our sport. Following are his modest words. Jason works daily to help others overcome their cancer and to regain health as he did).

At age 15 I felt some type of strong pain in my side and I immediately prayed..."Lord if this is a tumor, please let it not come out for a few years..." I remembered this prayer years after I found out I had cancer, after I went through the first operation, and after I went through the second operation along with Chemotherapy and radiation..... The tumor I had normally comes out in children who are 15 and 16 years old.... The Askin Tumor. We found out I had "terminal cancer at 18" with only a year to live...

Prayer is powerful and through it we found the simple answer to the disease...Seeds, as mentioned in Genesis 1:29.. http://www.canceranswer.com

At a young age I remember praying that G-d would show me what I could be the best in the world at...or at least one of the best...I remember praying and believing that he would lead me in every way towards that goal..

So as I got better in armwrestling I always prayed for direction...to this day we pray to start off our practices and have produced Mike Selearis, Paul Walthers, Danny Habig and Bobby Buttafuco.

I've always seriously kidded with people telling them that G-d was my manager..

I was led to exercise in different ways such as swinging on a swing for back pressure...playing handball for side pressure...and doing strange pull ups for back pressure....

Many times I've come across wrestlers who are just too strong in the hand for me and I find my self pulling my hand with my arm right out of the start...The matches where I think I learned my most important strap techniques were against Allen Fisher and Andreas Lundstrum at the South Street Sea Port Yukon World Tournament., In other words, I learned my best techniques in the middle of the match ( or set up for the match.)

The first time I realized that you learn most in the height of the middle of a match was when I was 15 and was put against a 40 year old experienced heavy weight...he said to me " I'm going to beat you an then I'm going to teach you the trick.." I said to myself "the trick" I tried to figure out the trick before he could put me down and wound up winning the match and causing him to tear his button down shirt in the process....He never told me the trick cause I must have figured it out myself during the match...

The best armwrestlers who've influenced me are Dave Patton, Lestlie Whims, Bobby Brown, Cobra Rhode and Allen Fisher...and of course Gerald Dees, Paul Walthers, Junior Hostler, George Gibbons, Gorden Gifford (what endurance) and Bobby Butafuco have all given me some black and blues I'll remember.

The directors that helped me out and encouraged me were Butch Bonnier, Al Verelli, Ray Darling, Gene Camp, and the wrestler that brought me to my first tournament was John Stazzone.

That's the beginning of the story...the rest hasn't been written yet...cause it hasn't happened...

With Love and Peace,

Jason Vale

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