Nick Lowden was 23 when he died from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the incurable and fatal brain disease.
The degenerative brain disease ,caused by repeated hits to the head, has been found in a number of former AFL and AFLW stars, including Danny Frowley, Shane Tuck and Heather Anderson.
But it is not just an issue suffered at the highest levels of the game, it is a problem that can be seen throughout contact sports at every stage.
One of the key challenges of CTE is that there is no way of knowing whether a person is developing the deadly brain problem while they are alive.
It occurs when an abnormal protein builds up in the brain’s nerve cells, causing them to malfunction and die.
Common symptoms of the degenerative brain disease including problems with mood, memory and impule control.
Nick Lowden had been found to have been suffering from CTE at the time of his death
The deadly degenrative brain disease cannot be tested for while a person is alive
At the age of 17, Nick was involved in a collision as he leapt for a mark that left him unconcious on the field, that moment has been considered the one that started off the issues with his mental health according to his family
Several Australian players who have been diagnosed have died by suicide.
Several Australian players who have been diagnosed have died by suicide.
Around the time of his death, on the surface, life looked great for Nick.
He was in the midst of a great semi-professional AFL career playing in the Victorian Football League and then South Australia’s league.
He was attending university and was surrounded by loving family and friends.
But he was fighting a constant battle against his mental health.
He tried medication, he tried psychologists, and his mum, Kerry, told abc that he was confused as to why nothing could remedy his pain.
‘He trained hard, he ate well, he wasn’t a drinker, didn’t do drugs, he was totally focused on being the best he could physically and mentally be.’
‘That was really distressing to watch him trying so hard, but he was fighting a beast that he couldn’t beat.’
A year after Nick won the 2022 SA Premiership with Norwood, his mental health was in crisis again.
And there were serious concerns from Kerry and Tony after their son had expressed feelings that he couldn’t go on.
Concerns reached a head when the couple were travelling home from a trip as Nick was at home recovering from an injury.
‘When we were driving back, I remember just feeling this feeling of dread because the last couple of days he cut contact and Tony was trying to ring him,’ Kerry said.
‘I rang him a couple of times and it just went to message bank,’ Tony said.
When they got home, Kerry burst through their front door.
‘I couldn’t wait to get in to see him,’ she said.
Kerry called out for Nick and then she found him. He had taken his life.
‘I was screaming out the front and the neighbours came out and I just screamed at them: ‘Get an ambulance, get the police,’ Kerry said.
‘He was gone and we’ll never unsee that.’
The Lowdens were later contacted by the coroner’s office asking if they would consider donating Nick’s brain for research.
They decided they would, ”Our rationale was maybe they can study a depressed brain, because we just thought Nick had a depressed brain,’ Kerry said.
Those tests shocked his family as they were told Nick had been suffering from CTE.
They link the change in Nick to a moment in the fourth quarter of a game in 2017, when he was just 17 years old.
He leapt for a Mark, and that is when everything changed. ‘It looks like he’s had his legs taken out from underneath him,’ Tony says. ‘And then he’s just come down, hit his head on the ground and you could tell he was out for a couple of seconds.’
Against the AFL’s own concussion protocols, he was sent back out to play, after the game he was showing signs of memory loss.
After that moment Nick’s mental health started to rapidly decline.
