Fourteen-year-old Georgia Ackroyd's is a ‘beachie' – informal for a young person with a predilection for board shorts, togs and singlet. They don‘t have blood, they have brine.

It takes her mother to coax her into a dress. But all that aside, she's lucky to be walking, lucky to be alive, lucky to be with us.

Georgia Ackroyd enjoying the surf before an accident during lifeguard training in January saw her break her neck. Photo by Jamie Troughton/Dscribe Media Services.

And it's ironic that she's now qualified to save lives, when she went scarily close to losing her own.

The first impression of Georgia is she's tall, nudging five-foot 11 inches or 180 centimetres.

And she's still got a couple of years' growing to do. A wonderful mane of hair, searing blue eyes and a liberal dusting of freckles. It's a great look.

She's statuesque, junoesque like the mythological Roman goddess but without the temper tantrums that came with Juno.

Competitive, determined, focussed – yes! Mature beyond her years and a 'damned nice kid” – yes!

But definitely none of Juno's ‘tanties' – no!

Georgia is a lifeguard, a newly qualified one with the Mount Maunganui Lifeguard Service. And a damned lucky one.

Because she came back from the brink – that ‘halo' she was trussed in for three months wasn't the trappings of a Roman goddess but a medical frame to keep her immobilised for three months after she broke her neck.

'I did have ‘wheelchair' thoughts at the time,” she admits. But the dark thoughts stopped right there.

That doesn't take away from the seriousness of her accident. 'It was 10am on January 11, 2014,” she remembers precisely.

'I was with a whole bunch of [Mount lifeguard] rookies coming in from a training exercise on an Inflatable Rescue Boat. We got the call to dive and so over I went. I went headfirst into a sand bank.”

Georgia claws at her head – she's grappling with the memory and it's uncomfortable.

She immediately knew something was wrong. 'I felt dizzy,” she explains, 'and my right arm was numb. But I wasn't frightened because I didn't realise how serious it was.”

And she managed to get herself to the beach, to her mother and to an ambulance.

What followed were x-rays and CT scans, bedside talk of 'fractures” and a transfer from Tauranga to Waikato hospital for assessment by an orthopaedic specialist.

Georgia Ackroyd in hospital, wearing a halo during recovery from a broken neck.

These were tense and uncertain times in the short life of Georgia Ackroyd.

And the outcome could easily have been so different.

'If the fracture had penetrated the spinal column,” she says, before pausing. 'It went so close.” That's a big 'if” that neither Mum Carly nor Georgia want to contemplate.

Because this is the story of a young woman's determination and courage – a story of youthful will and exuberance.

Now months of braces, physio and caution have given way to life as it once was.

Up before dawn to do five kilometres or so at the pool, a re-fuelling breakfast stop before school and then to the beach for two hours of running, board and ski sessions.

She spends as much time in the water as out of it; and I suspect if she didn't have to come ashore she wouldn't.

Of course there's also water polo to squeeze in and this year she has NCEA. No trouble for an achiever who has been given a second chance.

Georgia, who only months ago was confronted with her own mortality, is now contemplating a career in sports sciences. And she's looking way beyond the last line of breakers.

She wants to compete against the best. 'I want to represent my country and I want a crack at the Aussies,” she says.

That means the Kelloggs Nutri-Grain iron woman series – the hardcore professional circuit in Australia. Georgia aims high and there will only be degrees of outstanding success for her.

But her accident means she remains grounded – and yes, she does have advice for peers confronted with tragedy or hardship.

'Keep positive, stay cool and calm,” she explains. 'Panic just makes everything harder. And surround yourself with good people”.

Georgia's coach John ‘Spindles' Bryant was there from the get-go when she had her accident and is now back driving her career. 'You couldn't get a nicer kid,” he says. That's some accolade.