On Monday, Dec. 14, Jessica Frotten left work with a smile on her face and a bounce in her step.

She was headed out of town with a couple of friends and looking as carefree as she always was.

"She's always laughing, always happy to see you. She's just a very fun, wonderful girl,” is how friend and co-worker Darcy Laliberty describes her.

But 45 kilometres northwest of Whitehorse, the 21-year-old's life turned upside down.

The driver of the car she was in crossed over the centre line of the Alaska Highway, just before the Takhini River Bridge.

The late-model Honda Civic rolled several times, and both Frotten and the other passenger were thrown from the vehicle.

Neither had been wearing seat belts. Whitehorse RCMP have charged the driver with drinking and driving.

Frotten's back was broken. She had a torn aorta and a punctured lung.

She was medevaced to Edmonton, where she has spent the last month in intensive care.

According to Laliberty, the doctors' initial prognosis was that she would be paralyzed from the bellybutton down. Frotten, however, has thumbed her nose at that suggestion.

"She's not accepting the fact that the doctors have said she's not going to walk,” Laliberty said of Frotten's reaction to the news.

"She's not in denial – she's determined.

"... The doctors have reassessed her because she's recovering so well.”

Frotten's mother, Shelagh Boyle-Frotten, has been at her side since the crash; while back in the Yukon, the home fires are burning bright.

Within a week of the rollover, Laliberty and others were planning a fund-raiser for their friend on Feb. 4 at The Old Fire Hall.

"Somebody said we should have a wheelchair event for her, but I thought that sounded very fatalistic,” Laliberty told the Star this week.

"I don't want to go into this saying, ‘She's going to be in a wheelchair.' Whatever she needs, that's what we're going to do for her.”

Funds will go toward flights, physiotherapy equipment or whatever else her family needs as Frotten recovers.

She is expected to be back in the territory within the next couple of weeks, Laliberty said, so she can be closer to friends and family while she waits to begin her rehabilitation therapy.

So far, response to The Old Fire Hall event has been overwhelming, and friends and family are considering organizing a second event at the Yukon Arts Centre in March.

Updates on the event and Frotten's recovery can be found on the Facebook event page titled Jessica Frotten Mobility Fundraiser.