The next, she was in a hospital bed, hearing about her own life as if it were a movie she had not yet seen.

Ms Rourke suffered a severe traumatic brain injury when a car travelling at about 200km/h on the M1 at Morisset slammed into the back of her Toyota Hilux so hard it plummeted off a bridge into a small ravine.

“I’m lucky I survived,” Ms Rourke, of Aberglasslyn, told Fairfax Media during Brain Injury Awareness Week.

Initially, she lost more than 10 years’ worth of memories, including the birth, and the death, of her baby daughter, Olivia, in 2008.

“I’m happy to say I’ve had enough of those memories return to remember my daughter now,” she said.

“And enough to realise my foster son was not the 10-to-11 year old boy that I remembered – rather a 20-year-old man. And enough to remember that I did have a loving relationship prior to my injury.

“When there are enormous parts of your life that are missing from your memory, it really is quite distressing, especially as you see the pain, hurt and disappointment in the faces of people who care so very much.”

The driver of the other vehicle involved in the accident, Kayden James Lawson, of Killarney Vale, is now serving a four-year sentence for his role in the incident.

He was diagnosed with schizophrenia after the crash, with Gosford District Court hearing evidence that he was psychotic at the time.

Ms Rourke, now 41, said her “entire world” had changed since the accident on November 10, 2014.

She was in hospital for five months, and has had seven operations, with another to come.

Rehabilitation and therapy has become her full time job. She fatigues easily, has balance issues, and often struggles to process information. She sometimes has trouble with slurred speech, which has led to her being accused of intoxication.

Ms Rourke is behind the Brain Injury Perspective Facebook page, which she hopes will offer support and insight for anyone dealing with the side-effects of a brain injury.