Tre Lawson was a great athlete and very popular with his high school friends. He also had a dream he wanted to achieve — becoming a college track star. Tre was so driven that no one could have foreseen what happened to him in 2017. He was on his way home with some friends when the car he was in lost control and fell off a ravine. As the vehicle dropped so had Tre’s dreams, but he wasn’t out for the count.He was hoping to become a college track star someday, but then life threw him a curveball. It happened in 2017. The high school student from Macon, Georgia, was on his way home when his life was radically altered.
The car wound up falling down a 30-foot ravine, and it almost severed Tre’s spinal cord in the process. Fortunately, he had survived, but the accident had left him completely paralyzed from the waist down.
His athletic career had been shot down before it even had a chance to start. Before the accident, top schools like Auburn and Clemson had reached out to recruit him and now all those opportunities were gone.
Then, something changed. “On the third day I was there, I was going around and you see some people can’t move their arms,” Tre explained. “You just realized you are blessed with another chance.” So, he decided to work hard to regain what he had lost.
He set up Rolling Hope, a non-profit organization that raises money for the Shepherd Center and spinal cord injury research. After pushing himself month after month, Tre was finally able to stand and walk using a walker.
In early April, he shared a video on Twitter which showed him using a walker to walk a lap around a track while his friends cheered him on. In the caption, he wrote: “I’ve dreamed of the day when I would be finally strong enough to go around a track.”
If anything, he hoped that his actions would inspire others, and it undoubtedly did. Millions of people celebrated Tre’s accomplishment as they watched the footage. But this was just the beginning for Tre.
There are two things fueling his determination; one is his mom and the other is the memory of his late brother. “I have his picture at my bedside, and he gives me energy,” Tre shared. Given how much drive this young man has, we have no doubt he’ll get to walk without his walker soon!
