ROUND ROCK, Texas — Two years ago Kaitlyn Bradley took the court for a Round Rock volleyball game and began playing like she had countless times before. Except, this night something was off. She struggled to catch her breath and was moving around much slower than normal. Her family was in the stands and they immediately knew to take action.

“It’s crazy because she played volleyball until the second she went to the hospital,” said Ellisa Bradley, Kaitlyn’s mother.

Kaitlyn and the family soon discovered the reason she was feeling off. Doctors found a cancerous tumor near her lungs that required immediate chemo treatment.

“From the day she started treatment to the day she finished was three months on the dot,” said Ellisa. “It was the longest three months of your life, it felt like three years.”

During this time, Kaitlyn couldn’t be on the court with her team. When she felt OK, she would still come out to practice. But the whole time she had the mindset that her cancer was only a temporary setback and she would be playing volleyball again soon.

“There were hard days obviously but she never looked back,” said Ellisa.

“It was just a bump in the road,” Kaitlyn said. “It was just something I had to get through.”

While chemo treated her cancer, it also wiped out so much of the strength in her body that had been built up over the years.

“I knew the hardest thing for her was going to be when she came back,” said Ellisa. “It wasn’t going to be chemo, it wasn’t going to be the insulin. It was going to be thinking you are the same person when you walk on the court, your mind thinks that but your body doesn’t.”

“I remember my first practice back I was trying to get a ball that was maybe one step away and I just fell, I couldn’t get it,” Kaitlyn said. 

The recovery process was slow. Kaitlyn returned to playing for Round Rock last year but still wasn’t totally herself.

“You don’t really get it until you’re really in it, what it takes to fight and what the demand is on your body with the chemotherapy,” said Diane Watson, volleyball coach at Round Rock. “She had to battle.”

“I had my skills, they were there. They just weren’t ready to go,” Kaitlyn said. “Slowly and slowly it got better.”

This summer was a big step for Kaitlyn as she returned to playing sand volleyball. That is where Kaitlyn is at her best and she will play sand volleyball in college at TCU. She and her partner, Kaileigh Truslow from Liberty Hill, won a national tournament in Florida this past July.

“I just feel like I’m back to who I am,” Kaitlyn said.

Now she is finishing up her high school career as a senior captain at Round Rock. She’s been named to multiple all-tournament teams early in the season and helped Round Rock get off to a 23-8 record.

“It’s my senior year, it definitely means a lot,” said Kaitlyn. “I want to end on a good note.”

“You think about where she was and where she is now, it’s unbelievable,” Ellisa said. “She’s a great example of not to let anything get in your way, no matter what it is.”

“It has been a long process but it has been impressive to watch her go through it,” Watson said.  

Through everything Kaitlyn has stayed smiling and kept a positive outlook.

“If I gave up I would not be where I am right now,” she said. “That would suck because I love the game. I just had to keep that thought of just get through this one thing and I can get better and keep going.”

Kaitlyn goes for checkups every few months and has been cancer-free for over a year and half.