A British woman who developed a Swedish accent despite never visiting the country — is pleading for help to get her voice back to normal.
Georgina Gailey, 60, fears her new distinctively Nordic accent is ‘stuck forever’ after her speech changed during a phone call with her sister three years ago.
After rushing to hospital fearing she had suffered a stroke, doctors diagnosed her with the extraordinarily rare condition foreign accent syndrome (FAS), which Ms Gailey believes is linked to a heart attack she suffered previously.
It means she is just one of a handful of people to have ever experienced the speech disorder, which usually occurs as a complication from a stroke or head injury.
The mother-of-two from Hillingdon in Middlesex, says she is now frequently asked if she’s from Sweden and now pronounces yes as ‘ja’.
Georgina Gailey, 60, fears her new distinctively Nordic accent is ‘stuck forever’ after her speech changed during a phone call with her sister three years ago
Recalling her ordeal, Ms Gailey said: ‘It’s changed my life, there’s a huge piece of me missing. I was very well spoken and now I sound Swedish. I say “ja” rather than yes’
Recalling her ordeal, she said: ‘It’s changed my life, there’s a huge piece of me missing.
‘I was very well spoken and now I sound Swedish. I say “ja” rather than yes.
‘I didn’t notice how different it was at first until I listened to my answer phone message.
‘It’s so different. People will ask where I come from and when I tell them I’m English, they laugh. They think I’m Swedish.’
She added: ‘When people laugh, I smile on the surface but underneath it makes me sad.
‘I had a heart attack a few months before. I was getting better and was getting ready to get back to work.
‘One night, I was on FaceTime to my sister and she noticed that I was mixing my words up.
‘I went to the hospital and they thought I had a stroke, they kept me in for two weeks and then I was diagnosed.’
While strokes are the most common cause of FAS it can also occur following trauma to the brain, bleeding in the brain or a brain tumour.
Other causes reported in medical journals include multiple sclerosis and conversion disorder, when someone experiences temporary physical symptoms, such as blindness or paralysis.
After rushing to hospital fearing she had suffered a stroke, doctors diagnosed her with the extraordinarily condition rare foreign accent syndrome (FAS), which Ms Gailey believes is linked to a heart attack she suffered previously
Ms Gailey said she has visited a number of neurologists in the hopes of getting her original accent back but fears she may be ‘stuck’ with it ‘forever’
Cases have been documented around the world, including people changing their accent from pure Japanese to Japanese with a Korean accent and British English to English with a French accent.
But in some cases no clear cause has been identified. FAS, which is still poorly understood, can also last months or years, it can sometimes even be permanent.
No further details on her diagnosis were shared.
Ms Gailey said she has visited a number of neurologists in the hopes of getting her original accent back but fears she may be ‘stuck’ with it ‘forever’.
She said: ‘I don’t know if I’ll have the accent forever. It doesn’t feel nice thinking it might be stuck like this forever.
‘My poor family have to put up with me. The longer I have the accent the more likely it is that it will stay.
‘My brain will get used to speaking like this. It’s strange because if I sing, I sound English.
‘It does change depending on how much sleep I get. It’s so strange.’
She hopes that by speaking out she can raise awareness of FAS and encourage more research into the condition.
