SEVEN months ago, Lawson Rankin was fighting for his life after a scooter accident in Bali left him with a severe traumatic brain injury.
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Doctors didn't know whether he would make it, or what his future would look like if he did.
But since emerging from a coma, Lawson has been determined to make the best out of a bad situation.
He has learned how to eat and speak again.
He has learned how to walk again.
Now, the teenager wants to run.
He wants to get back on the footy field. And he is planning to study electrical engineering at university next year.
"The doctors didn't expect any of this," he said.
"I just did a neuropsychology test that basically tells you where your brain and your cognitive thinking is at, and I scored in the top 8 per cent of 18-years-olds - normal 18-year-olds who don't have a brain injury, which is good. It means I'll be off to uni next year.
"The neuropsychologist said my brain is working fine, but my speed is a bit affected, which may come back and improve over time.
"My brain injury may have affected my mobility, but I am so happy it hasn't had a drastic impact on my brain power, on my cognitive thinking."
Lawson's father, Phillip Rankin, said the test had proven what they had already suspected.
"We all expected it and wanted it and thought it, but to get the analytical confirmation was another positive tick," he said.
"It lessens the slope."
In November, Lawson and his friends had been in Bali to celebrate finishing high school.
They had been riding back to their villa when the accident happened. His mates had been doubling on a scooter in front, and when another rider snatched a phone out of one of their hands, Lawson sped up to try to get it back.
His scooter was found upside down and smoking in a deep stormwater drain.
Lawson was wedged behind it, under a driveway. The drain water was running over his face, and his helmet was split and cracked.
His friends did CPR, and an ambulance took Lawson to an intensive care ward at a Bali hospital. A fundraising campaign quickly raised more than $200,000 to help Lawson's family organise a medevac to get him back home for treatment.
"I look at Lawson now and I think getting him back to Sydney so quickly had a significant impact on his recovery and his cognitive thinking," Lawson's mother, Therese Rankin, said.
"I think it has had a huge impact on his recovery - no question.
"We couldn't be more grateful for everybody's support that enabled us to get Lawson back so quickly."
Lawson was in a coma at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney. He was also fighting a nasty chest infection - an antibiotic-resistant "superbug". He had a head wound, and had also suffered a fractured vertebrae.
"We were basically told that this might be as good as gets for Lawson," Mrs Rankin said.
For five weeks, Lawson was in a coma.
He was transferred to the John Hunter Hospital on December 30 - exactly one month after the accident.
But since the moment he began rehabilitation at Rankin Park Centre, and later the Hunter Brain Injury Service, Lawson strived to be the first person in the gym each morning, and the last to leave.
His hard work has paid off.
"You have got to go through that tough stuff to get to the end goal, so I don't mind going through the tough stuff, doing the hard work," he said.
"I believe it is incredibly important to have big goals.
"Even if you don't make that big goal, you will still be in a better place than you would have been if you hadn't made it."
Lawson's first big goals were learning to walk again, and getting back home.
On his first night back in Redhead - in his own room, in his own bed, with his own pillow - Lawson said he had shed a few tears.
"The first night I got home for a weekend visit, when I was going to sleep, I was just filled with emotion. And I did have a little cry to myself. Tears of happiness," he said.
"Right then it felt like I had made it. I'd made it home. The hard work was paying off."
That was about seven weeks ago.
Last week, Lawson returned home "for good".
He sent out a thank you letter to the people whose contributions raised the money to help his family bring him back from Bali.
Now, he has new goals.
Lawson wants to run again, and he wants to drive again.
He wants to go to university and, one day, return to playing rugby league.
"Shoot for the moon, and even if you miss you will still be among the stars," he said.
"I want to play footy again - and even if I don't play footy, by putting in the work and training, I'll still be in a better place than I would be if I didn't have that goal."
Lawson had put down electrical engineering as one of his selections for university prior to going to Bali - but he had been tossing up a couple of other options.
"I am keen to do that because of all the maths and physics involved in it," he said.
"It involves all the stuff I am good at, so I am looking forward to going to uni and meeting some new people.
"This will have been a gap year to remember, that's for sure."
Lawson's days are still "jam-packed" with therapies and activities. In the morning, he is typically in his home gym - practicing different movements over and over again to build up strength.
He plays chess against his brother and father in the sun on their balcony, and wins.
"Chess is good," he said. "It also counts as an exercise for my brain."
Lawson does rehab two-to-three days a week as an outpatient. Every other day, he walks his dog Juka down to Redhead beach and back.
"Barefoot is best," he said.
"I have to consciously think about every single movement. The more you do it the more it sinks in subconsciously. I just have to keep doing it over and over.
"It is so good to be home. This is what I dreamed of when I was in hospital.
"Being at home, sitting next to mum and dad, watching the Knights play... That's the stuff I'll never take for granted again."
It is so good to be home. This is what I dreamed of when I was in hospital, and it's even better than I thought it would be.
- Lawson Rankin, 18, Redhead
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