Soccer mom battling colon cancer gets community support
By Brenda Teele
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SHREVEPORT, Louisiana (KTBS) — A 42 year old soccer mom is on the back foot, as is said when a team is struggling to gain control of the game. Nikki Koll has colon cancer.
By the time it was discovered it had metastasized to her lymph nodes.
She is still holding onto hope and so are friends who’ve known her most of her life.
Any parent of a teenage soccer player will tell you, “We traveled so much on weekends and traveled here and there, and local too.”
Koll is a wife and proud mother of 15 year old Breauna. In August of 2023, Koll had a pain in her abdomen that wouldn’t go away. “Sometimes the pain was so bad it would make me vomit. I couldn’t eat, I just hurt so bad,” said Koll.
She never saw blood in her stool so she didn’t suspect colon cancer. “They just said oh it’s probably colitis. Or because you don’t have your gallbladder. Well I haven’t had my gallbladder in 15 years,” said Koll.
Gastroenterologist, Dr. James Hobley says there are other symptoms to watch for, “Weight loss is another Hallmark sign. And honestly, you know, fatigue down, going to your primary doctor and being diagnosed as being anemic, that’s another symptom or sign of a potential colon cancer. And so you should not ignore any of these things.”
Current guidelines suggest that you should get your first colonoscopy at age 45 if you are at average risk for colorectal cancer. But, Dr. Hobley says it depends. “I just literally did a procedure on a young lady whose father was diagnosed with colon cancer at the age of 39. She had a pretty large polyp, not a cancer, thank God,” said Hobley.
“Right now, it’s just kind of a waiting game and hoping that I can get to M.D. Anderson and that they have some kind of clinical trial,” said Koll.
While Nicky works to get strong enough to even qualify for M.D. Anderson in a clinical trial, her friends have gotten together to help. They decided to donate a deer shed to raise money for her medical needs.
Danny Weaver, the owner of the Antler Shed in Shreveport and his sisters Kate Farr and Terry Steig are selling $20 dollar raffle tickets for the deer blind.
They’ve raised almost $4,000 in just one week. “We’ll take any kind of donation, whether it be financial, whether it be items that they may want to give us for the sale,” said Steig.
Dr. Hobley suggests using Thanksgiving, for example to talk about family medical history. “When you get together with all your family, ask because this affects all first degree related relatives,” Hobley said.
To purchase a ticket for the Nikki Koll Benefit Raffle go to @kpharr57 or to learn more go to “Nicole’s Road to Recovery” on Facebook.
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