MILLY Parker’s life was changed forever by a car accident, but the hardest of times have led to magnificent beginnings.The Bendigo-born businesswoman and disability advocate was involved in a horrific car accident 20 years ago when the car she was a passenger in crashed into a tree at 130 kilometres an hour.

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“They thought I wasn’t going to make it,” she said. Ms Parker was flown to The Alfred hospital and her mother was awoken to the dreaded knock on the door by local police.The years after the accident were harrowing for the bright young woman, who had been studying to be accountant.“The main thing was I had a brain injury. It affected my executive functions like complex planning and logistics,” she said.“The irony is I can no longer work with numbers.”To her surprise, though, she found she could work with the creative part of her brain.“The really good thing is I became really creative. I put all the energy that was going to that (logistical) part of my brain somewhere else. The creative part has gone further.”Sick and tired of being told what she could no longer do, Ms Parker reached a tipping point and decided to free herself from the medical system.“It got to the point where I was suicidal... I kept trying to go back to my old life but I didn’t fit into my old life,” she said.“In the end, I made a conscious decision to stop going to doctors. I needed to do that in order to get better, mentally.”After years of being made to feel like a “broken” person, Ms Parker met someone who made her feel a long-forgotten sense of achievement, a golden cocker spaniel puppy named Riley.“With the training I gave her... it was the first time in six years that I did something right,” she said.“It was really simple. I gained confidence.”Ms Parker’s next big turning point came when she created a recipe for a gourmet dog biscuit for Riley.“I started making biscuits for her and sold $15 worth to my local pet shop. It was the first time in so long I’d made my own money,” she said.Her successful business Happy Yappers now sells to Harrods in London and David Jones, while her other role as a national ambassador for disability has seen her join the National Disability and Carers Council and gain a say in national disability policy.“I consider myself incredibly lucky,” she said.Ms Parker returned to Bendigo to share her inspiring story at the Women.i.s.e event last night at the Foundry Hotel.