ProRodeo Sports News - February 2, 2024

Clay Guardipee photos Steer wrestler Kyle Callaway defied the odds, coming back to from brain cancer to compete again. Above, he makes a run during the RAM Montana Circuit Finals Rodeo earlier this month in Great Falls. Callaway did win the steer wrestling in Buckeye, Ariz., the last week of January.

But one relayed to Kyle that his condition was “pretty bad news,” and insisted, Kyle recalled, that he would never rodeo again. As Kyle’s diagnosis became known, a longtime rodeo friend from college reached out. He told him that his wife traveled to Tijuana, Mexico when she was given only months to live with breast cancer. Eager to hear a different perspective, Kyle, his hair in a mohawk and right eye swollen shut, and Anna crossed the border. “After nothing but bad news, it felt like we have got to go to Mexico, and the doctor told me I was going to beat it. The positive message helped. It was a game-changer,” Kyle said. “That’s when we decided we would do treatment (in Mexico and the states).” The couple returned home with Anna administering IVs in between the chemo treatments. The kindness of family of friends created hope and an

invaluable infrastructure. Kyle’s parents Gregg and Debbie Callaway and his older brother Cody became regulars at the house, tending to the feed lot and cooking meals. Anna’s mother, Norma Haaland watched the kids and her sister Jackie Haaland, also a nurse, stepped in as well. Of course, the rodeo family stepped up, with breakaway roper Jacey Fortier setting up a silent auction to raise money for medical bills. Rodeo was irrelevant for Kyle at this time. Then, gradually, it wasn’t. Anna returned to competition and with Kyle slowly regaining his strength, he decided to join her at the Wolf Point (Mont.) Wild Horse Stampede in the summer of 2022. “That’s just Kyle. I supported him. That whole time he wanted to prove people wrong, mainly the doctors that said he couldn’t do it. That he wouldn’t

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ProRodeo Sports News 2/2/2024

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