Almost two years ago, Michael Rowcroft nearly lost his life.
Stuck in a cycle of substance abuse and addiction, he was stabbed seven times through a car window.
"I was with a mate, and we went to go do something we shouldn't have been doing and we rocked up there and I got stabbed through the driver's window," he told the ABC.
"I drove myself to the closest servo nearby and got rushed to hospital, was in a coma.
"I died six times, I lost nearly all my blood … It was pretty crazy, pretty traumatic."
The now-22-year-old from Adelaide miraculously survived but still could not break his drug habit.
After spending two months clean, he returned to using – soon becoming homeless, barely showering or eating.
"I got to the point where I was stealing off family — large amounts of money — and I was doing anything and anything to get high," Mr Rowcroft said.
'It was either get help or die'
It was in a public toilet in Adelaide's CBD last year that Mr Rowcroft finally made a call to his younger brother for help.
"I just looked at myself in the mirror and I didn't know who I was becoming, I kind of lost who I was," he said.
"It was my last resort; it was either get help or die."
Returning home to the support of his family, he then booked in for six months at Tumbelin Farm – a rehabilitation centre for young men struggling with substance abuse.
It was there that he underwent counselling and spent time on the working farm in the Adelaide Hills.
He also experienced adventure therapy, which he says changed his life.
"I thought it was going to be big gates, barbed wire fences and security guards on the door — and it's nothing like that," he said.
"I made relationships with people there that are so strong and vulnerable, it's just healthy relationships up there."
Less craving, less withdrawal
Adventure therapy involves group work, physical challenges, and spending time in natural environments outdoors.
Experts say it has become a proven method in recovery from addiction.
University of Adelaide addiction studies program director Andrea Gordon said the benefits for those in recovery were clear.
"It's been shown to improve physical wellbeing, mental wellbeing, so mental health, anxiety, depression … as well as resulting in some of those outcomes that reduce substance use as well," Dr Gordon said.
"It can act in a physical way of distraction, something to do, improving fitness … but it also triggers into those pathways that drugs of dependence do as well.
"Those people that have undertaken exercise appear to have less craving, less withdrawal, and more days abstinent from drugs."
'It's like putting calluses on my mind'
Mr Rowcroft has now been clean for almost one year – and has decided to take on his own adventure.
He plans to run 325 kilometres across the Lavender Federation Trail — from Murray Bridge to Clare – to raise money for Tumbelin Farm.
He also hopes to break the fastest known time across the trail -- of four days and 12 hours.
"When I run, my mind's free," he said.
"I'm just trying to find ways to conquer that as well and running has been a big part for me, it's like putting calluses on my mind."
He has gone from barely being able to run 800 metres to running about 100km a week.
Which is around the same distance he will have to complete per day to break the record.
"We've got a capacity that we can't even touch, it's there, you've just got to get pushed through those barriers," he said.
Whether he breaks the record or not, Mr Rowcroft said he would never give up running.
And he hopes to use his story to help others battling addiction.
"I don't want to change the world but if I can change one person's life and save them from going down the road that I went down and help them get out of the rut, that would be amazing," he said.
