When Jonah Lomu walked onto the pitch for this year’s Rugby World Cup opening ceremony, a worldwide audience of millions roared as rugby’s first true global superstar – legendary not just on the field, but off it too – took to the field at Eden Park.
The sporting great, whose shadow on the pitch was recognisable even before anyone could see his face, was supporting the country and the game he credits with turning his life around.
But as the crowd cheered and clapped, no-one could foretell that just two weeks later, Jonah would be lying exhausted and suffering in the renal ward at Auckland Hospital.
Speaking to New Zealand Woman’s Weekly from his hospital bed with his wife Nadene by his side, Jonah’s praying his kidney – donated to him in 2004 by Zo Radio DJ Grant Kereama – will defy the odds.
“My kidney needs a rest, then it needs to wake up and start working,” says Jonah. “It needs to fight.”
Seeing Jonah for the first time is a shock. The normally vibrant and charming giant is wrapped in hospital sheets, clearly in pain, in a private room darkened with heavy curtains and a screen on the window. A security guard sits outside the door, keeping watch over the man who has shared so much of himself, and who now needs protecting as media outlets around the world hound the family during this tough time.
While there are always those who lead a charmed life, Jonah hasn’t had it easy. His south Auckland childhood was notoriously difficult and he admits his “misspent youth” saw him return home many times in a police car.
Rugby became Jonah’s saviour, transforming the up-and-coming criminal into a legend – until 1995, when the 1.96m giant was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome, a serious kidney disorder. After his kidney transplant, Jonah was warned his troubles could leave him in a wheelchair. But Jonah was resolute – this disease wasn’t taking him down.
Fast-forward to 2011, and Jonah has become a business mogul, a Fight for Life contender, a social media expert, a public speaker and has his name on the popular video game, Jonah Lomu Rugby. In oay he also married his third wife, Nadene Quirk, mother of his two boys, Brayley (2) and Dhyreille, who turned one last month. After 36 years, Jonah’s life was perfect.
“I have a new, loving wife and two amazing boys who are my world. I never thought I’d have this,” Jonah told the Weekly just two months ago.
“My family is my number one priority. What I have now is it.”
Before the Rugby World Cup, Jonah and Nadene (33) had just returned from an impromptu honeymoon in Italy with their two boys, where they had spent hours taking in the sights, and planning the next few years of their life together.
“We’d love another baby, but we’ll see – we’ve been pretty lucky,” Jonah said, referring to the probability – which was soon proved wrong – that his transplant could have rendered him infertile.
“We are always talking about what we’ll do next, encouraging each other. As well as being husband and wife and parents to the boys, we run the business together. I’m his manager,” says Nadene. “People think we’re crazy, but I love this. This is our life now.”
But as the Lomus already know – for good and for bad – things don’t always happen as planned. Just days after his starring role in the opening ceremony of the Rugby World Cup, Jonah was being rushed to hospital in an ambulance.
“It just went pear-shaped one afternoon,” he explains, resting his head on hospital pillows. “I thought it was just a cold or food poisoning. I couldn’t put my finger on it. All I knew was that I didn’t feel well and I couldn’t hold any food down for about 10 days. I was basically starving.”
Hot, cold, shivering and vomiting, Jonah realised this was no winter chill.
“Last Friday, the 23rd, I was just about to leave for a function and I crashed. My kidney was failing, and my body had become so toxic, it started to shut down,” he says.
“Typical Jonah, he’d been running around pretty hard. I told him not to go out if he wasn’t feeling well, but Jonah hates to let anyone down,” says Nadene, who spends her mornings with the couple’s two sons Brayley and Dhyreille – who is the spitting image of his dad, already fitting size two to three children’s clothing.
She then takes the boys to the hospital, where the family spend their days, only returning to Jonah’s family home late in the evening.
“It’s tough on the boys, so I sometimes leave Dhyreille with Jonah’s mum. The whole family have been fantastic,” she says. While an exhausted Nadene lovingly tends to her husband, the boys entertain themselves with balloons and play with their dad when he has the strength.
Despite a barrage of tests run over several days, it wasn’t until last Wednesday they were given any real results – and even now there are no clear answers.
“The results were supposed to tell us whether or not Jonah needs to get on the transplant list again, but they’ve said there’s a very slim chance this kidney may survive. So for now Jonah’s having dialysis every day and a load of treatments to see if it can be revived,” Nadene says. While no-one is in any doubt about Jonah’s condition – his sudden weight-loss and lack of energy is dramatically apparent – Nadene is determined to remain upbeat, despite her own exhaustion. However, she admits she gives in and lets herself cry when it gets too much. She is also relying on her faith and often prays for her sick husband – something she says helps strengthen her belief he will pull through.
“To be honest, I don’t really know how I feel. My days are spent looking after the boys and Jonah,” she says.
“For me, what’s important is that the kidney’s still there. Jonah’s very sick, but he’s not dead, and I’m grateful for every day he keeps his kidney. Jonah’s my life – I can’t imagine my world without him. But we haven’t been told the kidney has had it. There’s still a chance, so I’m staying as positive as I can. We’ll keep going with the dialysis and hope for the best. Jonah’s still here and we have a lot to be thankful for.”
But if he does need a new kidney, Nadene will be the first in line to be tested. “There’s no doubt Grant would give his other kidney if he could. He and his wife Polly [Gillespie] have already come up from Wellington to see him. But I’ve offered mine, if I’m compatible,” she says. “I told the doctors that the first day we got here – I’d give it in a heartbeat.”
Despite his wife remaining upbeat, there’s little doubt Jonah is finding the crisis hard to handle. “This is tough, yes,” he admits with a hint of a smile.
Jonah has been up having tests most of the night and is clearly in need of sleep. “But it’s better than it was. Five days ago I wouldn’t be talking to you – I was face-down in the pillow, swollen, with my body looking really gaunt.
“While I’m better than that now, I’m still struggling. The hardest part is that I’ve got two boys and Nadene, who I can’t be at home with. our lives have been put on hold. We were going to go back to France in December, but nothing’s going to happen until this is sorted out.”
“We’re used to our plans changing,” insists Nadene. “All this does is delay everything. For the moment I’m over the moon that he isn’t back on the transplant list.”
Despite everything Jonah is going through, his unwavering resolve to get home to his beloved family is, he says, the key to his recovery.
“And the rugby!” he smiles. “They don’t have Sky in the hospital, so I only see the delayed games, but I’m determined to make it to the final. I’ll be there – even if we have to borrow an ambulance and drive it into the Eden Park tunnel. It’s not over yet.”
