Bound for glory, despite adversity: The Nick Moody story

A champion power lifter and body builder, brave cancer survivor and dedicated husband and father, Alice Springs’ Nick Moody is a man who was always bound for glory, despite the adversity he has endured in his life.

Nick Moody pumping iron in preparation for a bodybuilding competition. Picture: Emma Murray

NICK Moody is a man who was always bound for glory, despite all the adversity he has endured.

He is living a ‘warrior’s destiny’.

Mr Moody is a 32-time championship-winning power lifter, who reinvented himself as a body builder, and has finished top five in the world- twice.

He is a man who, with the help of some awe-inspiring divine intervention, survived cancer.

He is a father who lost two beloved daughters, Lilly and Charlie, who are now angels in heaven.

He is also a rock-solid husband to Lucinda, and the couple has together got through the worst experience parents could face.

They are also the parents of two beautiful boys, Arthur and Noah.

Echoing through gyms and footy changerooms 30 years ago was the Angry Anderson song, ‘Bound for Glory’ – and the lyrics of that song seem written for Nick Moody.

“Life’s tough, So what? I’m alive. I’ve been down, Seen hard times, But I survived.

“I’ll fight, and I’ll win … I’m breaking the chains … Yeah I stand tall. My heads high. Now I belong.”

Nick was born in Alice, 50 years ago this past May 8th.

“I’m very proud of the fact that I was born and bred in Alice,” he said.

“It was a fantastic childhood.

“We lived on the Stuart Highway, I went to Ross Park Primary.

“We’d walk there – it was safe.

“You never really had any issues, everyone knew everyone.

“We’d spend weekends at the Telegraph Station, or the water holes, riding bikes.

“I’d play junior soccer on a Saturday morning, my brother Matt would play baseball, then we’d swap with each other half way through.

“You’d have hundreds of people there at soccer, playing and watching. That was the social life, my parents were there.

“We only had one TV station, the ABC. We didn’t have all this technology- so we went outside and we played. It was a good time to be a kid.

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Nick is very proud of his dad Ken, who “got stuck here on his way to Darwin in 1952, and still lives here”.

“He worked for 43 years in the transport industry, so he was away a lot,” he said.

“Mum, Rae, pretty much raised us.

“She used to drive all us kids everywhere we needed to go.

“Mum was a very good classical guitar teacher. I was actually at Araluen a few weeks ago, and a guy was there performing, and he said he grew up here, and ‘Mrs. Moody taught me how to play.’ I thought, ‘That’s my mum!’”

Mr and Mrs Moody provided a great home for Nick and his brothers Tim, Simon, Jason and Matthew and sister Amanda.

As a kid, Nick played both the violin and the trumpet, but before long it was on the golf course that he found his initial calling.

Nick was club champion of Alice in 1991, and was the NT junior champion on six occasions. He travelled interstate playing Australian schoolboys golf, and went to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS).

“A gentleman called Nev Connor taught us how to play,” he said.

“My brother Matt was better than me!

“As I got older, when I was interstate, they said I needed to lose weight, so I joined the gym.

“I’d always been reasonably strong – I spent a lot of time working in the yard with dad.

“I joined the Y when I was 14.

“There was a USA guy there, Larry Wallon, working out in a group. I’d watch what they were doing, and he encouraged me to give it a go.”

The following year, Nick entered his first power lifting competition in Alice.

“I weighed 75kg, and I benched 142kg. It was the Australian record,” he said.

“Then I broke it again with 147kg.”

Nick Moody pumping some iron. Picture: Supplied

Nick travelled across Australia competing and won 32 power lifting championships.

His best dead lift is 310kg, 305kg for squat and one day in the gym he benched 235kg.

However, a complete tear of his left rotator cuff in Mount Isa brought his power lifting career to an end.

Nick had five years off “not knowing what to do” before he got stuck into body building competitions.

His first comp was the Victorian Championships, where, aged 29, he came second in the novice category.

The next stop was the Australian Championships, where he came third.

Nick went on to become the Commonwealth Champion for the National Amateur Body-Building Association (NABBA), and represent Australia at the World Championship level.

First, he headed to Malta for the NABBA Worlds, and came seventh.

Then he attended the World Fitness Federation World Titles in Germany, where he finished fifth.

He went back the following year and came fifth again.

After some time away from the sport, Nick made a comeback in 2016, winning the Sydney Classic, and then travelled back to Russia to compete against the world’s best.

At age 46, he came 10th!

This year, Nick’s gunning for another comp.

“I do it just for fun, to see what I can do,” he said.

“Winning isn’t the be-all and end-all. It’s about trying to be the best that I can.

“Shane (Stringer) and I used to go and do as many comps as possible, trying to lift personal bests.

“Lots of times I was lucky to win – someone else had a bad day.

“I had a lot of good people around me.”

Nick says the gym is good for the mind, body and soul.

“It’s my place where nobody can hurt me, no one can touch me. It’s my kingdom. It’s where I become king,” he said.

“I’m quite a shy person, I don’t socialise much. I like being alone. The gym is where I put my cape on and become Superman.”

Nick is passionate about paying it forward, and now works as the health and fitness instructor at Pine Gap.

He is also life member at the YMCA.

“I try and show and help as many people as I can in the gym,” he said.

“I love seeing people lift heavy things!

“A few weeks ago, a guy came up to me in Woolies and said that 20 years ago he had a knee reconstruction, and the things I taught him on how to get back into the gym, he was still doing.

“We do things we love more than things we hate. If people are forced, they tend to rebel.

“It’s about making dreams come true, and turning the impossible in to a reality.”

Nick has done a fair bit of that.

In 2001, aged 30, Nick had just completed his first body building comp. He was living in Melbourne, and went to the gym.

He always wears a shirt to the gym, but on this day, for some odd reason, he wore a singlet.

“A guy came up right behind me. I said, ‘Are you OK, mate?’”, he said.

“He said, ‘Yeah I’m OK, but you’re not’.

“I’d always had a mark on my back, a flat mole.

“The guy said, ‘I’m an oncologist at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, you need to come and see me tomorrow morning at 10am. No matter what, you have to come and see me.’

“I was very nervous, I didn’t really sleep that night.

“Two days later I went under the knife. They took a massive chunk out of my back, and they had to take a skin graft from my bum to stitch it back up.

“I said, ‘Now I feel like I’ve got some a***hole on my shoulder!’”

Nick Moody at the gym. Picture: Emma Murray

Nick says humour is a powerful weapon against fear.

“I was working at a car dealership at that stage, and my dealer principal, John Blair, said to me: ‘Laugh in the face of danger’. It’s a great tool for dealing with things,” he said.

Nick underwent a course of chemotherapy, which took a toll on all levels.

A good friend named John Watts reached out and helped get him back into the right mindset.

What are the chances that on the one day Nick doesn’t wear a T-shirt – covering his back – to the gym, one of the top cancer doctors in Melbourne walks past and notices a mark on his back?

“I’m very lucky,” he said.

“I feel like I’m here for a reason – I’m here for my kids. I’m meant to be here.

Nick then went on to compete all over the world in body building, and meet the love of his life, Lucinda, back home in Alice.

“We met through a friend, we did lunch at Sporties, climbed Mt Gillen the next day, and have been together ever since,” he said.

“We’ve been together 11 years, married for eight.

“Lucinda is the extrovert, I’m the introvert. She lights up a room when she walks in. She’s a tall blonde Dutch girl. She’s good to be around.

“She’s a great mother. I look forward to getting home and seeing her and the boys every night. We work well together as a team.

“She’s a runner. She ran a 400m time of 52.4 and beat the Olympian Melinda Gainsford-Taylor.

“She’s the health and community co-ordinator for the Town Council.”

Nick and Lucinda had been trying for kids for a while, when they went for IVF.

Lucinda fell pregnant and at week 22 needed to go to hospital.

“I wanted her to stay in hospital. They said ‘She’ll be fine’,” he said.

We went home on the Friday. On Saturday we raced back in, and my two girls, Lilly and Charlie died in my hands.

“That was December 22, 2014.

“Lucinda was in ICU until Christmas morning.”

Nick and Lucinda somehow survived that period of time.

Nick’s advice for others going through hell is, “You need to reach out and talk to people.”

“You will find that person isn’t the person you think (they are). There is a person that will listen. Real friends will help you,” he said.

“Look for the light at the end of the tunnel. The longer the road, the smaller the light. But keep stepping. Keep going forward.

“And learn to cry. You’ve got to let it out. You can’t hold it in.”

Nick and Lucinda didn’t give up on their dream to become parents.

After eight IVF cycles, they struck gold at the Genea Clinic in Newcastle.

They now have ‘IVF twins’ Arthur, who is 3.5 years old, and Noah who is 18 months.

Nick says being a dad is “an experience you can’t put into words”.

“There is no greater achievement,” he said.

“The next achievement is bringing them up right.

“Teach them, be a role model, allow them to make mistakes, and not beat themselves up.”

This fairytale came true.

After all of the pain and anguish, Nick along with his wonderful wife Lucinda and beautiful boys, Arthur and Noah, deserve to live happily ever after.

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