—Photo courtesy of LiveLaugh Photography Katie (Niggemeyer) Bradley, a 2005 Webster City graduate, is currently battling Hodgkin Lymphoma for the second time. She and her family, husband Ryan and daughters Ella and Paisley, reside in Mesa, Ariz.

If hell on Earth actually does exist, it resides in the form of cancer. If you’ve never experienced it first-hand or dealt with the trauma of watching a loved one fight the good fight, then consider yourself among the lucky ones. Sadly, though, far too many of us understand the ramifications of this disease that strikes in so many forms.

It’s horrible. I wish I had a more eloquent way to describe it, but there you go. Whether it’s the actual daily physical battle or the 24/7 mental drain, it’s all-consuming and, sometimes, that doesn’t go away even if you’re fortunate enough to eventually receive the “all clear” from an oncologist.

On Oct. 25, it will be two years since we received the good news that my wife had beaten Stage 3 breast cancer, but nothing is what it was prior to her diagnosis and it never will be. And almost 24 months later, we still have a few minor procedures remaining to correct everything that was destroyed by her cancer.

Even when you think it’s over, it isn’t. There’s always that next hurdle to clear, that next check-up or scan to get through without feeling like your insides have slowly been ripped out without the benefits of anesthesia.

But this isn’t about my family’s fight, rather that of one of the best and brightest to ever walk the halls of Webster City High School. And she needs our help.

Katie (Niggemeyer) Bradley (left) was inducted into the WCHS Athletics Hall of Fame alongside Ryan Reasland (center) and Doug Godown (right) last October. DFJ  file photo/Troy Banning

Katie (Niggemeyer) Bradley, a

2005 WCHS graduate, a 2020 WCHS Hall of Fame inductee and one of the best dang volleyball players ever to wear a Lynx uniform, is currently battling cancer for the third time from a hospital bed in Scottsdale, Ariz. It’s not fair and I’m angry for her even as she maintains her sunny disposition, her faith and her positive outlook.

As I told all of you in a story last summer, Bradley was diagnosed with State 3B Hodgkin Lymphoma in April of 2020 — an aggressive and rare form of cancer that afflicts approximately 9,000 people each year. What she didn’t know when we talked for that story is that she also had thyroid cancer, something that was detected while she was undergoing treatments for Hodgkin Lymphoma.

Sadly, Bradley is only the latest member — unlucky No. 13, to be exact — of her family to enter the ring and go 12 rounds with cancer. Her dad, Dave Niggemeyer, was a longtime popular art teacher at WCHS before he succumbed to colon cancer in March of 2019. Her mom, Deb Niggemeyer, another career-long art teacher in the Webster City school district, has also battled chronic lymphatic leukemia.

Bradley made the trip from Arizona to Webster City last October for her Hall of Fame induction ceremony and gave an uplifting speech to everyone who was in attendance. And in December of last year, she received the good news that her scans all came back clean.

But hell on Earth is always lurking from the shadows, just waiting for the moment when it taps you on the shoulder and reclaims control of your life.

Over the summer, Bradley shared the news that she’s relapsed. Hodgkin Lymphoma again. The course of treatment this time is a bone marrow transplant, followed by a week of high dose chemotherapy and months in relative isolation while her immune system regenerates. Following that, she’ll face another year of maintenance chemo so that by — God willing — 2023 she can resume a normal life.

The uphill climb that Bradley and her family — husband Ryan and young daughters Ella and Paisley — face is more than physical and mental though. Yes, there’s a financial burden as well and again speaking from personal experience, it’s daunting. Bradley, who followed in her parent’s footsteps by becoming an art teacher, faces months and months out of work at Leading Edge Academy in Mesa, Ariz. So the Bradley family could use your help and no amount is too small.

Enter Jess Howard and the WCHS volleyball program because Webster City always takes care of its own.

Howard, the Lynx head coach, has known Bradley for years and has called upon her volleyball expertise for guidance. In the past, Bradley has conducted volleyball camps at WCHS and has been only a phone call away when Howard needed advice.

Howard says that now it’s the program’s chance to return the favor.

“She’s done a ton for our volleyball program and she’s just a great person,” Howard said. “Her parents were very influential within our school system as well and had a lasting impact. So we’re just trying to give a little bit back to her.”

WCHS will host Algona Garrigan on Monday and the night will be highlighted by more than what happens on the court. A benefit for Bradley will also take place and all of the proceeds will go directly to the Bradley family.

Among the items up for bid in a silent auction will be six pies and various baskets of goods donated by Angie Mason, Cindy Sweedler and the volleyball team. Todd Lovelace has donated a large Lynx clock that he crafted, and the chance to have a volleyball player babysit for an evening will also be up for bid.

Following the match, a live auction will be held. The Odland family has donated a hog and two halves will be auctioned off. The Bargfrede and Garvey families have given a set of Lynx bag boards to be auctioned off as well.

Free will donation buckets will also be placed around the gymnasium for those that would like to donate.

This isn’t the first time that Howard has opened her heart to those close to WCHS athletics. In July of 2019, she held a similar benefit for my family during a Lynx softball game against Forest City and it’s a night that still brings both a smile to my face and tears to my eyes when I think about it. She’s never met my wife and yet she spent months planning what was a perfect night.

The money raised for my family that night by Howard and the Webster City community helped to save us in a way and it’s still being used to this day for my wife’s medical expenses.

If you are unable to attend Monday’s match and would still like to contribute, a friend of Bradley’s has set up a GoFundMe page — you can reach it by going to www.gofundme.com and searching Help Katie Fight Hodgkins Lymphoma — with the goal of collecting $10,000 that would go toward medical and other expenses. A total of $8,385 had been raised as of Wednesday afternoon.

In so many conversations that I’ve had with Bradley over the years — during her four-year stay as a starting volleyball player at Wichita State where she helped the Shockers win three Missouri Valley Conference titles and reach four NCAA tournaments, to her years in Arizona when she coached the Leading Edge Academy volleyball team to three state titles, to after she received her cancer diagnosis — she’s always talked about how proud she is to tell people she comes from Webster City. The community is in her bones, she would say.

Bradley is Webster City, and she’s one of the nicest, most genuine people that I’ve ever been lucky enough to know.

With your help, hell on Earth may have met its match.