Woman Secretly Asks Flight Attendant to Announce That Her Husband Is Cancer-Free — As They Finally Go On Honeymoon (Exclusive)
Haley Louvelle was so proud of her husband Josh for beating stage 4 cancer that she slipped a note to the flight attendant on their way to Jamaica
• Haley and Josh Louvelle were on a flight to Jamaica for their honeymoon when Haley slipped a note to the flight attendent
• The note asked her to make an announcement that Josh, who had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in 2020, was now cancer-free
• Josh was surprised by the announcement, to which the plane responded with a round of applause
While boarding her honeymoon flight to Jamaica on Jan. 6, Haley Louvelle handed the flight attendant a note.
"Hi!!! I wanted to see if there is any chance you could read this over the speakers?" the note read. "Possibly near the beginning of the flight so I can have my phone ready to take a video and make sure neither of us have our headphones on yet? Thank you!!!"
The Toronto resident, 22, tells PEOPLE the piece of paper she'd printed out contained a message she'd written for her husband, Josh Louvelle, 24, who was diagnosed stage 4 Thymoma in June 2020. Thymoma is a rare form of cancer that forms in the cells that cover the outside surface of the thymus, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Haley, a nursing student, recounted how she sat nervously as she waited for the flight attendant to make the announcement.
"My heart was racing waiting for the flight attendant to read the note, and I was anxiously holding my phone waiting to press record," she says. Then the announcement began.
"Hello everyone! I have a little announcement to share with everyone. I wanted to give a special welcome to a guest on today's flight," the flight attendant said over the intercom before reading Haley's note.
"A young man on this plane named Josh was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in June of 2020. Since then he has had chemo, radiation and surgery to remove his entire right lung, thymus gland, the lining of his heart and part of his diaphragm," she continued.
She added: "He was on life support two times and was in and out of the hospital for years. He fought for his life and is now cancer-free and on his way to his honeymoon in Jamaica! Please join me in giving Josh the biggest round of applause!"
Since his diagnosis, the high school sweethearts — who got engaged the day after Josh's diagnosis — had to postpone their honeymoon three times. Haley adds that following her husband's first chemotherapy treatment in July 2020 he went into a myasthenia crisis leading to an 11-day stay in the ICU, where he was intubated and on a ventilator.
"We were supposed to go two days after our wedding in July 2022, but my husband experienced a flare-up of his autoimmune disease and we had to cancel our trip," Haley says. She went on to add that they booked their trip again six months later, but "he still wasn’t healthy enough to go." so the couple's honeymoon was "long-awaited."
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Haley captured her husband's reaction on video and shared it on her TikTok account.
"My husband was so shocked and surprised when hearing the announcement," she says. "After the video, he was asking how I did that without him realizing."
Haley adds, "I was emotional and so proud as she was reading the note."
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The aspiring nurse says she always tells people going through similar situations that “hope is the only thing stronger than fear.” By sharing her video on TikTok, she is trying to remind people that the bad times will pass.
"He went back to work in April of 2023, and is doing amazing now," she adds about her husband.
"Josh is a living example that miracles can happen, he beat a stage 4 cancer diagnosis. Even in the hardest times you always need to keep hope," she says.
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