When doctors told Jacob Blackwell he may never walk again, he was determined to prove them wrong.
The 22-year-old contracted bacterial meningitis in August last year and almost died.
With his vital organs shutting down, he was placed in a coma and spent months in intensive care.
He was left with ongoing seizures and shaking, along with difficulties with speech, hearing, sight and balance.
Newcastle Knights legend Tony Butterfield took on Jacob as an NDIS-funded client.
"I started with him probably seven months ago when he was coming out of the brain clinic. He's really come a long way," Mr Butterfield said.
"He nearly died half a dozen times in hospital, so he's come back from the dark depths."
Jacob felt gratitude and relief when he was recently able to walk unaided.
"It felt amazing, especially after being told I may never walk again or it would be pretty well impossible," he said.
Mr Butterfield said it took a "committed group of allied health professionals" to help Jacob make such big improvements.
This included physio, occupational and speech therapists.
"They've helped me so much in this journey," Jacob said.
Mr Butterfield paid tribute to Jacob's determination.
"He was motivated to work hard," he said.
"I said to him: 'If you want to get back somewhere near where you used to be, it's going to take courage and you'll have to hang in there. There's going to be steps forward and steps back'."
Mr Butterfield, a Newcastle Knights hall of fame inductee, played 229 games for the club from its inaugural season in 1988 to 2000.
He was a member of the 1997 premiership winning side.
He's now using his experience in high-performance sport in the disability sector through his business Spotted Gum Support.
"I like working with clients who are motivated and prepared to own the process," he said.
Jacob said this approach appealed to him, as "I've always been a very determined, disciplined person".
"I want to try to get that 1 per cent better each day," he said.
Jacob, who was doing a landscaping apprenticeship before he got sick, said he was seeking an "extra edge" for his recovery.
"It stood out to me that Tony was a Knights legend. I'm a Knights fanatic and dyed in the wool Novocastrian," he said.
Mr Butterfield helped clients set goals to make progress "step by step".
"Success comes in fractions," he said.
"For me, it's about passing on the lessons and techniques of resilience that I learnt and that level of detail and positive thinking.
"It's about establishing habits that will improve lives."
His approach covered "body, mind and spirit".
"I encourage Jacob's ability to think outside the square and believe that his body has the capacity to heal," he said.
"I use breathing and meditation techniques. We breathe in the morning by the lake.
"We turn on Schubert's Ave Maria and it sends you up into the clouds."
He said Jacob's shaking "started to disappear while he was meditating and doing the breathing".
"That helped his ataxia [poor muscle control] and therefore his balance, confidence, ability to shake a hand and do micro moves with his fingers and thumbs."
Mr Butterfield, who has five sons [one with a lifelong disability], believes in the power of habit and exercise.
He's big on "making your bed in the morning", keeping a diary and reviewing goals.
"If you can introduce physical elements, that fires up the endorphins and provides confidence," he said.
With a vision-impaired client, he does "push-ups and crunches before we go for a walk and talk about life".
"It's not a boot camp, but it's not far off it," he said.
"You're out in the sun challenging yourself, changing the mindset and forming habits.
"I'm not a standard support worker. My philosophy is 'once you get knocked down, you get back up again'."
