“My parents were normal average people. My mother was a teacher and my father was a refrigeration mechanic. I had three siblings and we lived in Loftus in Sydney,” she said.

“My accident really hit the family at a time when it was developing mentally.”

Fay explained that family’s develop ‘mental states’ with milestones such as moving house, kids, a young baby, adjusting to kids at school and then becoming adolescents and developing different relationships and as a parent starting to let go and let their children be.

“At the time of the accident (November 1968), my brother was 16, my sister 14, I was 11 and my younger sister was six.”

Fay was school sports captain, played netball and was a qualified umpire, loved hiking and riding her bike. It all changed in an instant.

Doctors repaired her foot as much as they could but she was told she might not be able to walk again. She battled chronic infections and ulceration, spent a lot of time in hospital and did the majority of her schooling from home.

“The year after my accident my brother was being drafted for the Vietnam War, my sister was starting to go out with her boyfriend, my parents were having issues, the court case was coming (her parents had decided to sue the railways) and some of the issues with my dad were around money.

“Both of my parents had their own traumatic history and it was the triggering of my trauma against their trauma.

“It slowly evolved and the family imploded from the stress and trauma. We were hit by too many things – it was accidental stress on top of a tough developmental period of the family.

“The accident is really just the beginning of the story. It was the catalyst to other events.”

Fay became an amputee in 2012 due to ongoing pain and infection in her foot caused by the accident.

Fay finished her final draft of All Stations to Waterfall in March last year and worked with a mentor since June.

“I went to several workshops on working with publishers and did literary speed dating with the Australian Society of Authors in November last year. The publishers say what they are interested in publishing and see if you are a match.

“I spoke to four or five publishers and two asked for the manuscript.”

She has now also secured a literary agent who is speaking with publishers.

“So we will just wait and see.”

Fay said her book is written in the first person.

“It’s in present tense so it reads like a fiction and not a memoir. It’s as it happened through my own eyes and the reader finds out things when I do.”