One-punch victim speaks for the first time since brutal attack
Perth soccer player Danny Hodgson is pleading for an end to violence on the city's streets.
A one-punch attack left the 26-year-old with a catastrophic brain injury in September last year.
His teenage attacker was given a sentence of three-and-a-half years.
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Perth soccer player Danny Hodgson is pleading for an end to violence on the city's streets. 9News
Mr Hodgson and his family are now pushing for harsher penalties eight months after the encounter.
His mother Nicola said the unprovoked attack "broke our family, literally broke it to pieces".
"We're literally putting those pieces back together every day and it's never going to be normal," Ms Hodgson said.
The push follows an announcement today that boxer Danny Green's Stop the Coward Punch campaign will receive a million-dollar federal government boost.
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A one-punch attack left the 26-year-old with a catastrophic brain injury in September last year. 9News
The family believes it's a start but it isn't enough.
They are calling for a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years.
"If they want to stop this happening, they've got to act now," Mr Hodgson said.
"The quicker they act, the quicker it stops."
Mr Hodgson is making progress on his road to recovery and is doing things doctors believed he never would again.
"Every day is a challenge," he said.
"The main thing now is to learn how to walk again, which I'm improving rapidly."
Ms Hodgson said she was amazed by her son's progress.
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Mr Hodgson is making progress on his road to recovery and is doing things doctors believed he never would again. 9News
"It's something we didn't think we were going to see," she said.
"We were told he wouldn't do it and here he is just knocking down barriers and making me proud every day."
Mr Hodgson's parents flew to Perth to be by their son's side and they haven't left since.
After 186 days in hospital, the Joondalup player said he wouldn't be where he is without them.
"There's always light at the end of the tunnel," he said.
"You've just got to brace yourself and set a mindset that you're going to get through it and happier days will come."
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