Mr Pedrsen had been working as a team leader on the killing floor of abattoir Nolan’s Meats in Gympie when his world was turned upside down by the crash.

He was the passenger of a car driven by a drunk driver which ran off the road, hitting a tree before rolling down an embankment.

He said the car belonged to a friend who left his keys in the car when we was arrested for drink driving and Mr Pedrsen and another friend decided to move it to a safer location.

Most of the damage to the car was on the passenger side where Mr Pedrsen was sitting.

With a fractured skull and swelling on the brain he spent more than three months in a coma and woke unable to speak or walk.

His parents, who he now lives with in Orange, helped him relearn those basic skills. 

“I’m not sure how long I was in the hospital, I was told it was for eight months,” he said.

“My ma and pa taught me how to walk and talk again and I don’t remember any of it, I don’t remember yesterday.”

Despite a number of health issues and his brain injury continuing to affect his short-term memory, with the assistance of Job Centre Australia and Jay and Nicole Parkes of Woodward Street Quality Meats he has returned to employment.

Mr Pedrsen works as a cleaner at the butcher shop for about three hours each afternoon and said he enjoys being able to work and is thankful to Mr and Mrs Parkes for giving him the opportunity.

“I enjoy this work, I’m extremely lucky they are giving me a job,” he said.

“I enjoy work, I find it very hard to do nothing.”

Job Centre Australia marketing consultant Callan Hunt said the organisation specialises in helping people with a disability find work and said the success rate depended on the person.

“Jos (Mr Pedrsen) was really motivated, he would turn up to appointments, he always wanted to be in a butcher environment so it was a good opportunity for Jay to take him on,” Mr Hunt said.

Mr Parkes said this is his first time hiring a person with a disability and from this experience he would do it again.

“Callan just came in and was just asking about helping people with disabilities to get into the workforce,” he said.

“We are all for helping people get a chance by getting them into the workforce. 

“We got told a lot of the story and I met Jos myself and it just went from there. It’s been good, he’s helped us out a lot.”