Just months ago, Megyn Cordner was on the cusp between life and death in Tamworth, 14,000km from home.
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Fighting a deadly cascade of effects from a bacteria, she was in an induced coma and her mother had flown in from their home in Canada, steeling herself for the worst.
But the 20-year old has refused to let near-death end her Australian adventure.
After a remarkable recovery and months of recuperating in Winnipeg, she's back in the region, has earned her second-year visa and plans to go travelling the country - because "I just don't like things unfinished".
Megyn arrived in Australia in October 2018, starting three months' work in the hotel at Boomi, near Moree.
On her last day, she thought she was getting the flu - but it was the symptoms of a rare infection from the Fusobacterium necrophorum bacteria, and she became gravely ill.
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She was transferred from Wee Waa to Narrabri then Tamworth, having become critically ill within five days.
Her mum Liz Lafournaise received a call "no parent would ever be prepared for": her daughter was septic and on life support, and Mrs Lafournaise should get to Australia soon as possible.
With her sister-in-law, she travelled for more than 36 hours - "like a lifetime".
"I knew the odds were against us ... how was I ever going to tell Megyn's little brother, or her father, or her grandmother that Megyn was going to die?
"This is what I was preparing myself for ... I have never been so scared."
Now with her heart, lungs and kidneys severely compromised, Megyn was airlifted to Newcastle.
Her treatment included a decortication: surgeons opening her chest and scraping out her severely infected lungs.
"When they brought me out of the coma, I didn't know where I was; I thought I was in Canada," Megyn said.
"My mom wasn't there because I woke up at three in the morning ... but there were lots of nurses around and they were explaining where I was and that I was safe."
When Megyn was well enough to cope with the long flight, she was flown home for what was expected to be up to a year's recovery. But after just a few months, she was back on the plane to Australia.
"I came here to have a journey and live on my own, and I just really love Australia," she said.
"I came back and did three months of farm work to get my second-year visa ... Me and my partner just bought a campervan to travel around Australia."
Megyn also made a point of visiting The Retreat at Froog-Moore Park, where her mother and aunt stayed while she was gravely ill and unconscious in Tamworth hospital.
Mrs Lafournaise said owners Peter and Sandy Moore had been "our support system ... our family" at a time of crisis.
Mrs Moore said it had been "a deeply emotional experience" to care for the Canadians while Megyn was so unwell.
"Megyn, whom we had never meet, just took our breath away standing at our door with beautiful flowers looking 100 per cent healthy and happy. Tears all 'round ... happy tears," she said.
Mrs Lafournaise said people "may all ask, 'How could you let her go back after all that?'"
"The answer is quite simple: I had the chance to come to Australia and experience the beautiful people," she said.
"We now have friends we call family ... and I know that they are there for Megyn if she needs them."