He was a tough as nails Newcastle Knight, part of the history-making 1995 reserve grade premiership team; a widely admired community man whose name is synonymous with the Lakes United Seagulls Rugby League Football Club; and, his biggest achievement, a devoted husband and proud father of three.

That’s where Miles, 42, has come from – but it’s not where he is today.

His life changed forever in May last year on a motorcycle trip with two mates in South Australia.

Miles’s bike flipped on the remote Strzelecki Track, sending him over the handlebars at high speed.

He was unable to move and instantly knew something was wrong.

In agony and isolation, the trio waited on the side of the road for help to arrive.

Three hours later, a helicopter finally landed at the crash scene, such was its remoteness, after the group was able to trigger an emergency beacon.

“It was just so lucky the guys didn’t didn’t take Troy’s helmet off, or roll him, because that saved his life,” wife Nicole recalled.

“It was a miracle.”

But Miles’s injuries were severe.

He broke his C2 to C6 vertebrae, with initial surgery in Adelaide able to successfully replace his C3 and C4 veterbrae with a cervios cage, while fusing the rest.

Despite dire predictions, the first months of Miles’s recovery were positive.

He defied medical opinion and started to regain movement in his toes, fingers and legs.

The word “lucky” started to be thrown around a lot, and Miles quickly became a well-liked patient at Royal Rehab hospital in Ryde, in Sydney’s northern suburbs, as he put in the hard yards and slowly recovered.

His mission was to “go hard” for 90 days at a time, live in the present and take each day as it came.

Though persevering, his condition began to deteriorate, his spasms and convulsions started to become longer and more frequent.

It was a test of his tenacity, but a test he was determined to pass. 

(Anyone at Royal Rehab will tell you negativity is death – just ask popular Hunter footballers Alex McKinnon, Dom Punch and, most recently, Damian Jobson, whose tales of courage have inspired Novocastrians for years.)

“Everyone loves Troy – no matter what he’s going through,” Mrs Miles said.

“He’s had a big couple of convulsion episodes in front of the other clients at physio; they’re all mortified.

“Then they’ll see Troy a couple of days later once he’s rested. He’s always got a smile on his face. He’s positive to everyone.

“They say, ‘Mate, how are you still being positive after everything you’re going through?’.

“Troy says, ‘There’s no point bitching and moaning’.

“He thinks there’s always someone worse off.”

But everyone has a breaking point.

For Miles, it came after a stint in Royal North Shore Hospital after three days of seizures and convulsions.

“That experience broke him mentally, physically and emotionally,” Mrs Miles said.

“It changed him.

“Even he said he wasn’t the same person.”

Miles’s three sons – Bailey, Toby and Zac – have watched their father’s condition rapidly deteriorate, and it’s taken its toll.

His hypersensitivity, which advanced after surgery to remove two cysts from his spinal cord in November, is one of the worst cases specialists have seen.

Miles has not been outside in five months, and simply touching him can trigger a seizure, the longest of which can last up to two hours.

“No doctors can seem to help him, there’s no answers,” Mrs Miles said.

“He just lives inside his room.”

Asked about the future, she said she was yet to see it.

“It’s hard to look down the track,” she said. “We just need to keep living day by day.”

With the family’s finances depleted and the medical outlook bleak, the rugby league fraternity has stepped in.

Next week, a benefit night hosted by Fox Sports presenter Tony Squires will be held at Belmont 16ft Sailing Club.

With special guests Alex McKinnon and Teigan Power, the event is organised by the Running for Miles committee, which has raised vital funds for the family for months. 

Former Knights coach and premiership-winning captain Michael Hagan said Miles was a “typical, hard-working Novocastrian” who the community needed to get behind.

“It’s just the unannounced nature of how it’s all come about,” he said.

“When you go out to enjoy yourself, you’re not thinking about the risks. 

“This story with Troy and his young family, it’s devastating. He was a tough, cackling, hard-working player.”

Lakes United football manager Brendan Walsh said Miles was an inspiration to many. 

“It gives you gratitude for what you have, it puts everything in perspective, and gives you hope that you can support him and help him to get back to some sort of life,” he said.

“Hypersensitivity is a condition that’s taken hold of him, and it’s a terrible thing.

“At a time when you’re seeing a bloke go through the worst time in his life, you can’t cuddle him, you can’t shake his hand.”

Walsh said Miles embodied all the values respected by Novocastrians.

“Milesy represents what we represent: we’re very humble, we’re hard-working, we don’t ask for help,” he said. 

“But often the ones who don’t ask for help are the ones who need it most.”