Amnesia Mystery: Do You Know This Woman?

A woman with amnesia who was found on a street corner in California fears she will die of cancer before finding out her true identity.

The woman, who is calling herself 'Sam', was found by firefighters in Carlsbad, a seaside community near San Diego, in February.

She was reportedly dishevelled and barely conscious.

It was soon revealed she was gravely ill with ovarian cancer and suffering from amnesia.

Her plight has started gaining traction on social media, with a Facebook page set up by supporters she met in hospital .

She has also been added to Interpol's missing person database .

Sam, who is believed to be in her fifties and speaks with a slight Australian accent, says she was diagnosed with stage three ovarian cancer.

She says she has had a tumour the size of a volleyball removed and that the amnesia was probably brought on by the tumour.

The cancer has since spread and she fears she will run out of time to find her family and friends.

"I just feel like there’s a thick fog over my mind, my memory, over my brain that I can’t see through," she told NBC 7.

"I can't remember anything. How I got here? I didn’t have anything on me, no jewellery, no purse, nothing."

But she says she has fond memories of Australia.

"I started dreaming of Australia," she told NBC.

"That was my first recollection of anything. I was in a lap pool. I’d have these incessant dreams. I’ve probably had six or seven dreams initially of lap swimming."

Sam, who also speaks some French, wrote on the Facebook page that she also has memories of Hawaii.

"Both Australia and Hawaii are extremely familiar to me," the post said.

"I remember having brekky almost every morning at the organic restaurant across from the ocean in Cottesloe Beach outside Perth, and dining for months at the restaurants in Byron Bay."

The FBI says a fingerprint check failed to provide any clues and it is not investigating any further.

"We are not doing any additional follow-up on this," FBI special agent Darrell Foxworth told AAP news agency.

Sam has brown eyes, a chipped front tooth, is 170cm (5ft 5) tall and right-handed.

She was blonde before her hair fell out due to the cancer treatment.

Her case has been getting coverage in the Australian media, but some outlets describe her accent as British.