‘I’m English but woke up one day with a Welsh accent – I need medical help’

An English woman has been left stuck with a Welsh accent after waking up one day and finding her dialect had changed.

Zoe Coles, from Lincolnshire, is hoping to receive medical help for her sudden accent change, which has morphed her voice from English to German and now into Welsh.

Ms Coles was diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder in 2022 and now believes she has Foreign Accent Syndrome too.

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Her voice changes impacted her employment, with the woman packing in her job at the pub due to her vocal changes as her accent would change very six weeks, now running the gauntlet of Welsh influence.

She said: "It won't go away, I think it's stuck. I've come away from work because I woke up six weeks ago with this accent. "At first, it was more like a strong German accent and now I believe it's a Welsh accent."

Dozens of FAS cases can be associated with neurological problems, and Ms Coles says she also suffers from chronic pain, speech problems and loss of motor control.

She is now seeking out a neurologist for medical help, the BBC reported, after Zoe failed to receive a referral for a specialist at St George's University Hospital.

Speaking to the BBC, Ms Coles says though she enjoys the new accent, it would be "just a blip" that she hopes to get over.

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She said: "There are many FND sufferers but this accent syndrome… something has obviously gone wrong up in my brain, like something's obviously not right, because who on earth wakes up speaking a totally different accent?

"So I would like to work with somebody [who] can help me and then we can help others."

Even though her accent is manageable and Zoe is looking for help in returning to her original, English dialect, it has made for some "awkward" interactions with people around her.

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