Pain-free Edmond cheerleader is ready to root for University of Central Oklahoma

Morgan Owens was in severe pain five years ago after surgery. Now, she is smiling and looking forward to becoming a University of Central Oklahoma cheerleader.

 
By Diana Baldwin | Published: June 16, 2012    Comment on this article Leave a comment

Morgan Owens couldn't stop looking around and smiling as she sat this week in the Nigh Center at the University of Central Oklahoma.

photo - Morgan Owens thought when she was 14 her leg would have to be removed and she would never cheer again. Now, she is going to be a University of Central Oklahoma cheerleader. She poses in front of Broncho Lake on the Edmond campus. PHOTO BY DOUG HOKE, THE OKLAHOMAN
Morgan Owens thought when she was 14 her leg would have to be removed and she would never cheer again. Now, she is going to be a University of Central Oklahoma cheerleader. She poses in front of Broncho Lake on the Edmond campus. PHOTO BY DOUG HOKE, THE OKLAHOMAN

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“I'm excited for my future,” one of UCO's newest cheerleaders said as she talked about what it would be like to be a freshman on the Edmond campus and cheering for the Bronchos. “I am just super excited.”

Owens, 18, has been cheering since she was 3. But five years ago, she thought she would never cheer again.

On her 14th birthday, March 10, 2008, as Owens was wheeled into surgery, she feared losing her leg was a real possibility. Instead, a tumor and 9 inches of bone were removed and replaced with a donor bone, 16 screws and a metal plate. She was in the hospital for seven days and had to have four blood transfusions, but there was no cancer.

She couldn't walk for two months.

“Cheering was my life,” Owens said. “I thought I had nothing to looking forward to. I was depressed and really mad.”

The pain was so bad that Owens would beat her leg with her fist as hard as she could just to get through the sleepless nights. She said she would cry when she couldn't stand the pain any longer.

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