Eight years to the day after his life was turned upside down, Garth Hazlitt is looking to turn that experience into something good for others.

The Winnipeg man's vehicle was struck by another in the early morning hours of October 16, 2009, while he was driving through Kansas City in the United States, on his way back to Winnipeg.

"I knew I was in trouble," Hazlitt says in the moments following the accident. "They had to extract me from the vehicle." While he waited to be freed he recalls a memory of making an important phone call. "I called my wife from the car and said, 'honey I love you, I love the kids. I don't know if I'll be able to see you again. I've been in a bad wreck." Hazlitt says, though, he made a decision to fight for his life. "Sitting in the car, I decided I couldn't leave my babies because I had a three-year-old and six-year-old at home."

The journey to recovery has been a long one. A year and a half after the accident he lost his leg due to complications, and recovery is still something he is working towards each and every day.

The man who caused the accident, however, was found not guilty of impaired driving by a jury. Hazlitt, with the help of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in the United States, decided then to pursue a civil suit. However, Hazlitt did not pursue a large settlement. For Hazlitt, it was more about simply righting a wrong, and having the accused admit that they had caused harm.

That's why Hazlitt is also taking $25,000.00 from that settlement and donating it to MADD so that they can award a university bursary annually to someone whose life has been affected by drinking and driving.

"It's trying to take something very bad, and turn it into good for somebody else," Hazlitt says. "I was fortunate I didn't lose my life. My wife was fortunate she didn't lose her husband, and my kids were fortunate they didn't lose their dad. But there are other people out there that did lose their parents . . . they're going through worse things, and here's a way to just try and help somebody else."