A young woman in Austin, Texas, has reached a major goal thanks to hard work and determination that is inspiring others.
When Hannah Hutzley walked a mile for the first time in nearly six years, the crowd watching erupted in shouts of joy, NBC News reported Saturday.
Video of the special moment begins at the 2:14 mark:
In 2017, Hutzley was involved in a car accident that left her paralyzed, according to a Bare Performance Podcast post in 2021.
Even though she was told she would never walk again, Hutzley kept her sights set on proving everyone wrong. She recently finished the last leg of the race in Austin and described it as a feeling she will never forget.
“The moment of crossing the finish line, I had to earn it. Even right now, I’m brought right back to it and I’m just so full of joy. I can just feel it overflowing. It was incredible, incredible. I’ll be living that moment for the rest of my life,” she told NBC News.
Video footage shows the moving moment she reached her goal, and the crowd was unable to contain its excitement:
At the finish line, she raised her fist in a show of victory, saying in an online post it took her five hours and 58 minutes to walk the mile “accompanied by a 7/10 pain.”
However, she gritted her teeth and kept moving.
“Nothing was going to take away from the significance of this moment & I wanted to savor every single second along the way,” she wrote in her Instagram post.
When the initial accident happened, Hutzley was ejected from the car window and her body slammed into a barbed wire fence, according to the podcast.
But even as she lay injured, she felt a voice saying, “All is well.” When she woke up in the hospital a few days later, she was told being thrown from the car was what saved her life, and she “gives all credit to God for his intervention.”
Social media users praised her recent accomplishment, and one person called her “undeniably tough” and an “absolute warrior.”