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Athol woman proves power of perseverance

ATHOL, Mass. — It is a remarkable comeback.

More than a year ago, an Athol woman was nearly killed in a motorcycle crash while in Florida.  The injuries were so bad, the family could not get her back home.

The road to her recovery started on I-95 when a group of brothers from a motorcycle group headed to Florida with an idea that proves the power and perseverance.

"They said ‘if’ she is going to survive she would probably be a vegetable,” said Bonny Thomson, Shevonne Legere’s mother.

Thomson remembers the police knocking at the door and the blur of rushing to Florida.

“We just looked at her and thought ‘oh my God this is really our daughter,” she said.

Legere was thrown 150 feet from the back of the motorcycle. Her helmet took the biggest impact, but she still suffered a traumatic brain injury that left her in a coma for two months.

“I should be dead,” Shevonne said.

Doctors told her she’d never walk again. Shevonne isn’t the type of person who backs down from a challenge.

"She never gives up,” said her father.

Recovering was only a small part of the challenge. Last year, her family had no way to get her back to Massachusetts.

“She couldn't even lift her head up. She couldn't focus to look at you in the eyes. There was no, there's nothing there,” said Thomson.

Her dad's brother from The Fire and Iron Motorcycle Club started brainstorming, which led to a discussion with his boss at Alert Ambulance.

"’Maybe you can go pick her up in an ambulance,’ and I looked at him and said, ‘you'd let us take an ambulance’ and he's like ‘yeah...’" recalled Joseph Farrington.

The group of four, made the 2,600 mile trek to bring Shevonne back.

Since being home, Shevonne has been taking steps, literally, toward recovery.

"She makes me work hard,” said Shevonne about her mother.

It’s hard work that is clearly working.

"Walking, maybe even starting a new job. Her arm and hand will be working. She's going to be fully functional. Fully healed,” said Thomson.

Before her crash, Shevonne used to work in the health field. And after what she' been through, she plans to be back at it sometime soon.