Son, nine, nominates Jason for top award

2:05pm Thursday 24th July 2008

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A BRAVE dad who is fighting a serious and devastating rare illness could be named the city’s parent of the year after being nominated by his proud son.

Every day Jason Lumb battles to cope with the extremely rare illness, autoimmune enteric neuronitis. It prevents his throat and his bowels from working properly, meaning he cannot eat or drink without being sick and he has to spend a minimum of 12 hours a day on a drip.

On top of the illness, he also suffers from diabetes, balance problems, dehydration, partial deafness and muscle wasting.

Despite all his difficulties, Jason is a family man and struggled to continue working as a senior analyst at Nestlé until last year, when he finally accepted he could no longer cope, so he could provide for his wife, Amanda, and son, George.

Jason, of Upper Poppleton, cites his family as the “most important thing” in his life and says one of the most upsetting effects of his illness is his inability to play with nine-year-old George.

“I feel so sorry for my son, because he has not got a proper dad who can go and play football with him on the field, or go for a bike ride with him, or whatever,” he said.

“I go to watch him play football but I have to take a seat down with me, because I have not got the flaming energy.

“He has to put up with so much and he does so well, because a nine-year-old lad just wants to be out and about and playing at all sorts.”

But for George, Jason is the best dad in the world, which is why he has decided to nominate him in the Parent Of The Year award in The Press’s Community Pride Awards, run in conjunction with the City Of York Council.

George said he put his dad forward for the award for being “so brave”.

He said: “I want to nominate my dad for Parent Of The Year because he has had to put up with so much being ill, but he is so brave and is always there for me.”

Jason said being nominated was a “lovely surprise”. “My family are really important to me so this nomination means a lot,” he said.

The deadline for nominees for The Press’s Community Pride Awards has now passed and we are accepting no more entries. A panel of judges are now whittling down the hundreds of nominations ahead of a ceremony to be held at the York Racecourse in October this year. Our judges will select three finalists in each category, which will be announced in The Press on Wednesday, July 30.