A six-year-old Ohio boy finally beat leukemia and his classmates decided to celebrate.
John Oliver Zippay, nicknamed J.O., completed his last round of chemotherapy just days after Christmas. It marked the end of his three-year battle.
It was only appropriate, of course, to commemorate this moment with a standing ovation from his classmates, teachers and family at St. Helen Catholic School in Newbury on Wednesday.
Heartwarming video footage of the moment shows John Oliver walking down the hallway, surrounded by his friends, who stand clapping and cheering on the sidelines.
The boy meets his mom, Meghan Zippay, at the end of the line of students and gives her a big hug.
John Oliver was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia on Nov. 1, 2016. The diagnosis was followed by more than two weeks in the hospital, several years of chemotherapy and side effects that made him unable to do any physical activity.
Now, he’s doing much better.
“He’s doing great,” dad John Zippay told Cleveland’s FOX 8. “He’s feeling better. A lot of his side effects over the years involved his legs from the steroids and he’s doing great.”
Zippay added that John Oliver wasn’t able to enjoy gym class with his friends, either.
“He had a meta-port in his chest so he wasn’t able to do any physical activity for three years,” Zippay added. “It was hard for him, had to sit back for gym class and things.”
Despite the battle he’s had in his young life, John Oliver never got behind on schoolwork, principal Patrick Gannon told FOX 8.
“Him having to miss some of the time was tough, but the class was just so happy to see him come back,” he said.
The celebration didn’t end there.
His school put on an entire assembly for the boy, playing a video montage of his battle.
“You want that for your child, to grow up and get dirty and play outside and have fun and we kept him in a bubble, so we’re excited,” Meghan Zippay told FOX 8.
“Looking forward to the future and having our little boy back.”
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