Shane Ford may have lost a leg, but he's found a new appreciation for life.
Shane, 35, lost his leg in a motorcycle accident in February when he pulled out to overtake a van on London St and ran into the pedestrian island opposite the entrance to the Splash Centre.
The crash was his own fault, he said, it was not his usual route and by the time he saw the island, "I was on it."
He lost his right leg at the scene and smashed up his left leg badly. Among his other injuries was a handful of broken ribs, blood in one lung, lacerations to his face and abrasions.
Three Fijian men with first-aid certificates from the van he had been passing stopped to help him, as did another passerby, who kept a tourniquet on his badly bleeding leg.
Without them, he probably would have died.
Shane said he'd been told that he was going in and out of consciousness after the crash, but he was thankful he couldn't remember any of it.
He was in an induced coma for about two weeks, and now "pretty much" has a titanium left leg - it is held together with a titanium pole in his lower leg and a titanium plate on his femur.
Having had 35 bikes in his time, it was ironic that the one he was riding when he had the accident was the smallest - an FXR 150. He'd only had the bike for 12 hours before the crash.
"The smallest one did the most damage," he said.
Before the accident, he was pretty much doing nothing, he said.
He was on the unemployment benefit at the time of the crash, but was preparing to move to Tauranga to take up a job driving a forklift when it happened.
"It made me realise that there are more important things in life than doing nothing.
He was drinking a lot before the accident happened, but he wouldn't touch it now, he said.
He's decided to stay in Wanganui, and get a job in dairy farming, something he used to do years ago.
A lot of old friends had come out of the woodwork since the crash and they had helped make it worth staying, he said.
"[I've] definitely got a more positive outlook."
He's been measured for a prosthetic leg and has three weeks to wait for it to be made.
The one thing he's looking forward to most is simply going for a walk. He's also keen to get on a bike again, but it'll probably be another 12 months before he'll be allowed to do that - but he'll definitely be getting a new bike, he said.
Being in a wheelchair hadn't been as hard as he thought it would be, Shane said.
It has its moments, but generally there wasn't much he couldn't do.
Knowing he was going to be getting back up and walking again helped, he said.
Shane's mother, Dawn Wilson, said before the accident he "wasn't choosing a very good path at all".
She had been unsure how he would handle his new life when he got out of hospital, but he had done her proud - he was more full of life, happier, more open, and determined to show his four children that he's "not a no-hoper".
"It's definitely changed his life, anyone can see it," she said.