Broken Arrow Students Hold Parade For 8th Grader's Return Home From Cancer Treatment

A Broken Arrow school is celebrating the homecoming for an 8th grader who just got out of Saint Jude Hospital after a long fight with brain cancer.

Thursday, September 1st 2022, 10:30 pm

By: Grant Stephens


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A Broken Arrow school is celebrating the homecoming for an 8th grader who just got out of Saint Jude Hospital after a long fight with brain cancer.

Oliver Middle Schoolers weren't going to let a little sprinkle rain on their parade for Jude Howpe, who's finally back home after months of cancer treatment.

"I had these, the butterfly feeling. My legs are really weak so my dad had to help me out of the car so I could stand right. Oh man it was the best," he said.

Dozens of people showed up at his house with signs to support his return home.

"He just started crying and he was like, 'I had no idea that this many people cared about me.' And I was like, 'You have no idea,'" his mom, Kayleigh Howpe said.

His journey here -- fraught with seizures, losing the ability to swallow and walk -- wasn't easy.

"Whew. A lot of emotions," she said. "You know when you go from having a kid who's … never really had any issues to all the sudden he's like a kid you don't know, and he doesn't know why. And we find out that he has this thing happening and changing so drastically."

He's got some catching up to do, but at least he'll be doing it at home.

"I got so much off my shoulders, like, it was amazing. I just felt so free," he said.

Grant Stephens

Grant Stephens joined News On 6 in October 2020. He fell in love with news the minute he picked up a camera in his high school broadcast class.

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