CAR crash victim Sarah Dumayne, who once enjoyed life to the full, told today how she has become shy and paranoid after almost losing her life.

The Gwent teenager lay in a deep coma after her accident in August but a week later defied medical odds and made an amazing recovery.

In an exclusive interview with the Argus, she tells how she is fighting to come to terms with the emotional and physical scars of her ordeal.

And she has received support from another head-injury victim, Vanessa Baxter-Jones, who fell 60 feet from a balcony in Albania while serving as an aid worker.

Vanessa, from Newport, has told Sarah to be optimistic and says she has been "reborn". Sarah, 18, lives with her mother, Mary, 43, and sister Helen, 12, in Oakdale Path, St Dials, Cwmbran.

She has no memory of the car crash which took place at traffic lights near the Ashbridge Inn, Avondale Road, Cwmbran on Monday, August 20, or of the resulting coma. A black Vauxhall Nova she was travelling in with four friends collided with a van.

Sarah suffered severe head injuries, a punctured lung, spinal injuries and a broken pelvis.

She said: "I'm not the person I used to be. "Before the accident I was the centre of attention, always on the go and my phone never stopped ringing.

"I used to go clubbing in Cardiff, Bristol and Swansea but that's all changed now and I've become shy and quiet." Sarah can walk unaided and her speech has not been affected but she gets tired easily and said: "I also get paranoid and I don't like going out of the house because I think everyone is looking at me."

Mrs Dumayne said: "The doctors told us that the Sarah after the coma wouldn't be the same as the Sarah before it.

"We get our good days and bad and I admit that it is hard, I mean life is, but we'll get there. "I look after her full-time and her sister, Emma, comes over to help.

"Some of her friends have been marvellous, and that's what friendship is all about, being there for someone when they need you."

Sarah said: "I didn't know what had happened and people had to tell me I had been in an accident and slipped into a coma."

Sarah is receiving physiotherapy and psychiatric treatment, and is returning to the University Hospital of Wales in February for a check-up with a brain surgeon.

* Vanessa, 28, from Chep-stow Road, Newport, fell from the balcony in February 2000. She is finally leaving the Rookwood Hospital, Llandaff, Cardiff, which specialises in treating head and spinal injuries, at the end of this month, and moving into her own flat in Victoria Park, Cardiff.

Vanessa advises Sarah to contact a charity called Headway at Rookwood Hospital. "They are excellent and have helped so many people with severe head injuries.

"Although in some ways things will never be the same, it is important to be positive. "I don't want to scare Sarah, but it took me a long time to come to terms with my injuries. "I feel as if I have been reborn and now find it a lot easier to live life in my own head space."

* Pictured: Sarah Dumayne with her mother, Mary Dumayne