FORT VALLEY, Ga. — Tre Lawson was a track star at Westside High School in Macon. In 2017, he was injured in a car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. He started Rolling Hope, a non-profit organization that raises money for spinal cord injury research and to benefit the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, where he goes for physical therapy. Almost three months later, Lawson has made progress as shown in a viral video.
The video, posted on his Twitter account, shows him taking a lap around the track at his school. "It's been two years since I've been back home and it felt good to be back home and put my feet back on the track again," says Lawson.
This is what he's dreamed about for the last two years. Now, he has the strength and newfound motivation. The 20-second video has gone viral with over 15,000 retweets and 100,000 likes.
"Initially, I thought my video was just gonna hit a couple hundred people around the campus," he says, "That lap wasn't short. It was almost an hour, an hour and 15 minutes maybe."
If you ask Lawson, he says he couldn't have done it without the support of his friend, Tamera Edwards. She was the person who walked the track with him and recorded the video.
"People are very inspired by him, including me. He's a go-getter and that's what I like about him. He's going to keep on fighting, keep on going until he gets what he wants," says Edwards.
What comes next for Lawson? He says his next goal is to walk around the track with no support, and he wants to accomplish by homecoming this fall. For now, he will continue his physical therapy this summer at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta.