When Nick Conway should have been embracing his final year of school and preparing to stride into adulthood, he was fighting for his health in hospital with Les Kiss by his side.
Overcoming adversity had been nothing new to the Conway clan. His father, Bob, represented the Brisbane Broncos on 12 occasions in an injury-riddled career, with his son even revealing a brain bleed played a role in a premature retirement.
But what happened to Conway as he readied to leave a lasting legacy on Nudgee College shook the family of the Queensland Reds rookie to the core.
“In grade 12, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer,” Conway reveals to this masthead.
“It was an absolute shock, I was as fit as a fiddle and in really good nick – I had no idea this could happen to a healthy person. It was probably a bigger shock for mum and dad; I’ve always sort of had the mindset of ‘fix it and move on’.
“It was really innocuous; I had a hit to the area in a Reds’ under-18s game in 2024, and then I had the pain for a while. One day, it was just immense … my year 12 was a crazy year.
“There was a three-week period where I got the scan back, and it was looking pretty dodgy, they sort of didn’t know and didn’t give my mum a straight answer, and then following that they did the surgery and said it was rare and aggressive.”
Fortunately, Conway is now cancer-free, and he made a comeback to the field just eight weeks after his surgery. But the battles did not stop there.
An MRI found he had been playing with cracked ribs – suffered scoring a try in round two of Nudgee’s season before travelling to New Zealand for Australia’s under-18s clash. Even last season, as he plotted a Super Rugby debut, a mysterious back issue kept him sidelined.
“It was a really tough year because they sort of didn’t know what was wrong for a while. Nothing was really working, we went to two different specialists, and nothing was really coming up on the scan, but I was still getting a lot of pain,” Conway says, having previously contended with stress fractures.
“They actually diagnosed me with chronic back pain for a bit, and then I slowly worked my way through that. It was very mentally challenging, there was nothing on the scan, but I still had the pain – I reckon the frustration would’ve contributed to the pain, to be honest.”
Those issues are now behind Conway, as the lightning fullback-winger ventured with the Reds on Wednesday to Japan and Italy for their off-season tour to face Saitama Wild Knights, Italy XV and Benetton in the inaugural Lynagh Cup.
Given his dad’s history, rugby league loomed as an option for the now 19-year-old to pursue, before he arrived at Nudgee College. Despite having never played union before that, he was identified by Queensland rugby as a prospect worth watching.
Upon his cancer diagnosis, the Reds’ cohort – led by Kiss and general manager of rugby Sam Cordingley – did not waiver in their commitment to the Junior Wallabies star.
“I was tempted by some of the league things, but the Reds provided me with so much care through some tough times. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” Conway says.
“Dad sort of pushed me even more towards union because I think he was so grateful for how they supported me and [now for me to be] repaying that favour. They probably wouldn’t even know they were huge, but they were in that aspect.
“I was in a room with Kissy heaps as a 16-year-old and in awe of him, and they backed me and mum and dad all the way through and helped me with the surgery. That was probably one of my darkest times, but it really stuck with me through all that stuff – they’ve backed me in every sense.”
On the field, Kiss’ coaching before he departed Ballymore to take the reins of the Wallabies – replaced by Auckland Blues premiership-winning mentor Vern Cotter – had encouraged Conway to trust his instincts.
“If I did a chip-and-chase or a massive cutout, whatever I did, and it went wrong, he wouldn’t hammer me. He always backed me with skill,” he says.
Now, Conway is viewing the Reds’ tour as a chance to prove he has a long future in Queensland and Australian colours.
He will be vying with close friend Treyvon Pritchard – who has toured with the squad hopeful of returning from a broken leg in its later stages – for the No.15 jumper vacated by departing Test custodian Jock Campbell (Shizuoka Blue Revs).
“The leg’s coming along well, we’ve progressed to running over the last two weeks, and with the tour, we’re hoping to progress a bit faster and maybe catch a game towards the back end,” Pritchard confirms.
While an attempted poaching raid by the NRL’s Papua New Guinea Chiefs and his footwork to bamboozle All Blacks star Damian McKenzie put Pritchard’s name in lights, Conway believes the obstacles he overcame would ensure he remained locked in a fight for the jumper.
“All those dark times and tough situations I feel like have happened for a reason and made me stronger. It just opened my eyes to that there are more important things than rugby, and just to be grateful for every opportunity you get,” he says.
“You don’t know what’s around the corner. To have that mental strength to push through those hard things, when you know you’ve been through something harder, you can always push through.”
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