James Rolleston's GF heartfelt reveal of his tragic accident

Publish Date: Thursday, 15 June 2017, 5:09PM

James Rolleston's girlfriend has opened up about what life was like after his car accident and brain injury.

Ayeesha Taylor, who left New Zealand to go travelling last month, has called the last year "challenging to say the least".

In July last year, Rolleston was driving with promising league player Kaleb Maxwell in the car near their hometown of Opotiki.

A month later, the 20-year-old woke up in hospital with a compound fracture in his leg and a brain injury.

Taylor, 20, posted to Instagram that she worked with a team to reteach the Boy and The Dark Horse star the basics like talking, walking and how to do up a button.

"Being in a relationship with someone whose emotions, memory, ability to empathise and have perspective, organisational skills, speech, temper, motivation and much more is compromised is almost impossible.

"It's opened my eyes to communities who dedicate their lives to people living with disability and taught me lessons I may not have even learned in my lifetime."

But she said the experience took its toll on her. Because of that she's taking some "reflection time out" for healing, travelling and growing.

The past 10 months have been challenging to say the least. I never imagined I would be sitting next to my partner on life support. Wondering if he was ever going to wake up, having no way of knowing what would lay ahead for him. I remember wondering if he would simply be able to look left and right or squeeze my hand. Thankfully once James started waking up from his 4 week coma, he started to improve rapidly. He suffered a severe brain injury and was crushed from the waist down. James was my love and I was so blessed to be in the position to help him back. With a great team we taught him to relearn the basics; to talk, walk, use a knife and fork, do up a button. Like being re born in a 19 year old body. All in order to return to a normal, independent life. It's strange reflecting on it. Everyday was a journey in itself. Being in a relationship with someone who's emotions, memory, ability to empathize and have perspective, organizational skills, speech, temper, motivation and much more is compromised is almost impossible. It's opened my eyes to communities who dedicate their lives to people living with disability and taught me lessons I may not have even learned in my lifetime. I'm grateful for all the lessons. Being so focused on his needs and well being for so long, understandably I left myself behind a little. I'm taking some reflection time out, time for healing, travelling, growing and time for me. I'm not the same person I was, we are always growing and evolving into hopefully wiser versions of ourselves. I feel happy and calm. I want to thank everyone for the unconditional love and support I've received around the accident over the past 10 months. The emotional support my friends and family have provided has meant so much to me. I was not able to be around for you for so long but you were in my heart and by my side. I'm so grateful to have understanding and strong people surrounding me. There will be a documentary around James' traumatic brain injury and his road to recovery coming out in October on tvnz. I talk about the journey and it shows footage of what our day to day life was really like. Continued in comments...

A post shared by I-sha (@ayeeshataylor) on Jun 13, 2017 at 2:15pm PDT

Taylor also revealed that there will be a TVNZ documentary about Rolleston's road to recovery screened in October.

"It also reflects how reckless driving not only affects the person involved, but the people who love them too."

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission.

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