The English Woman Who Woke Up With A Welsh Accent | This Morning

[Music] if you've ever lived abroad or spent time sorry I just have that mental notches moving it right still there I'll put it under the tongue now if you've ever spent time in a new country it's understandable that you can sometimes adopt the local twang I do it all the time yeah go to America hey how you doing I love it I like it people go abroad to let the continent and they're still speaking in English but they speak in the absence yeah yeah it's a good point in touch with basically Gino so six weeks ago Zoe calls from Lincolnshire woke up speaking in a Welsh accent having no links to there and have never even visited the country as she continues to look for answers as to why this has happened to her Zoe joins us alongside Dr Zara uh Sarah sorry to explain the science behind this unusual occurrence sorry unbelievable what what I know so a year ago I was diagnosed with functional neurological disorder yeah uh six weeks ago seven weeks now uh I woke up speaking like this can you just explain what F uh fnd functional neurological disorder is so would you have answered feel free to chip in on this is it because you had a Blow To The Head or like no I woke up with slurred speech um and the neurologists at the hospital I went straight to the hospital and he said stress uh trauma past trauma maybe um you can go home now that's what he said to me oh my goodness yeah so then you were left with this accent I mean it's quite a nice accent isn't it what did you sound like before was it quite RP what did you sound like great East Midlands really yeah but with a bit of a Kent twang because I'm originally from Kent yeah okay and then when you first when you first had this it manifested itself in a slightly Germanic accent is that right I don't know what I don't know what accent it was it's so full of people were saying that you sounded you sounded slightly german yes what yeah a bit of everything today you want to thank your lucky stars that you have not woken up like this I don't know how I don't know why but I speaking like this now uh last night and today and I don't like it I mean you poor thinkers it sounds almost comedic but of course I mean it's funny right yeah it's hilarious and we laughed as this been my medicine through all of this it's been laughter yeah we take the Mickey out of ourselves of me I've got two because I get that's how I get through unless I look just a quick listen to how you sounded normally before so last night my speech came back um I didn't want to jump the gun too much so I left it until this morning and yeah I'm talking fluently and it's like nothing ever happened that is bizarre so just so time to go so you you sounded slightly German and then it went back to normal no what was that when was the when was that clip that was previously that's not that's a clip to show people how I normally would speak because people think right you're having me on no I'm not having you on does that put you putting on your old accent basically I know sorry I do video diaries every day I understand true yeah since I've been diagnosed is there any connection to whales or Germany or anything like that no I've never been I'm going to go because I promise my Tick Tock followers I would go and visit them and so how is your your family and friends and how do they do they like the accent uh my fiance loves it he says I'm a better person it's like I'm not that I was evil before but like I'm more confident I used to be quite shy and quite held back but I'm quite confident actually this this is something has changed you as a person the Welsh must be very happy because I'm happy and I'm confident so you saw I guess you don't want to go back do you I don't know um I don't know what I used to sound like anymore when I listened to videos I it's hard for me it's just like sitting in bed and just think who am I what's going on all the time does it have an effect on you mentally yeah it does so people see the happy me and stuff but sometimes at home you know I'm at home sometimes I go to bed and I cry and I just because I don't know what's going on yeah I'm just okay so let's bring Sarah in so so can you explain fnd for us to start with so a functional neurological disorder is a problem where the brain is having difficulty sending and receiving information if you think of the brain as a bit of a computer there's no problem with the hardware itself but the software there's a problem somewhere in the software so doing scans and things sometimes come back is completely normal but there's something in there that's sending the message incorrectly um and and in this case it might sound something a bit like foreign accent syndrome which is a a separate syndrome but that may be connected to the fnd but so he's not been diagnosed with that has she you've not been formally diagnosed from what I understand but that's something that you've been researching yourself and yeah and thought that that 150 cases since 1907 that is insane I know I know so anything she can do I mean what's the next what's the next stages so I think you know with this what we need to do is rule out underlying courses because um for foreign accent syndrome there can be um brain injuries that can trigger it off so things like Strokes are probably the most common cause um head injury so trauma to the brain tumors um severe migraine psychological distances um developmental disabilities so the the you know it's such a big array of things that could trigger this oh have you had tests for any of those no I had a CT scan when I was diagnosed with fnd but I haven't had any other energy doctor taking this seriously because the fact that you haven't had any of these tests have you actually asked for these tests uh I asked for an MRI but they don't refer you to a number for an MRI they refer you to a neurologist I asked to go to a specific neurologist but they decline me because they are here in London and I can't I'm out of the catchment area so I'm back because obviously it's quite funny she's got a different accent but what if there's something underlying me wrong yeah absolutely so yeah I agree you know when there's something under that could potentially be underlying it and we do want to investigate it further and as you said them and it's a very rare condition you know 150 cases um but we do get the headlines every now and then because it's a very fascinating topic for people to read about but um you know we had a headline about George Michael once having this and having had gone into a coma for three weeks and he he woke up with a West country accent and most cases it's temporary it goes back to normal again after but in some cases it can be permanent so what advice would you give so who should you go and see if she's not getting the answer she needs something around doctor yeah I think always my my opinion is if you aren't getting on either getting on with a certain GP or you don't feel that someone's taking your condition seriously it's always to get a second opinion where possible and in this case you know era speech therapy and speech and language therapy therapist that can help you know even counseling just to help you cope with what's going on is is something that can be considered whilst you're waiting for um for a neurological referral Sammy you are so positive so it's lovely that you are being so popular and thank you for telling your story thank you thanks for having me

Channel: This Morning

Views: 78,840

Keywords: this morning, this morning itv, holly willoughby, phillip schofield, this morning funniest moments, this morning interviews, alison hammond, itv

Id: Nf0X5E9WeyU

Length: 7min 52sec (472 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 17 2023