Teh One Who Knocks
01-07-2014, 12:32 PM
By Paul Cockerton - The Mirror
http://i.imgur.com/YWgxDin.jpg
A mum from Canada who fell off a horse and woke up with a Scottish accent is writing a book about her life-changing experience.
Sharon Campbell-Rayment, 50, regained her speech several days after the accident, in Ontario in 2008.
She had a Scots accent. and started using words such as "wee", "grand", "awright" and "brilliant".
Doctors later diagnosed foreign accent syndrome - a rare condition associated with head injuries, which affects only 60 people worldwide.
Sharon, a mum-of-two who ran a horse-riding school, says the disorder is a blessing and led to her tracing her family's Scottish roots.
She'd never been to Scotland before the horror fall, is now penning a book about her experience.
Doctors originally diagnosed concussion. When her voice started to come back, she had an uncontrollable stutter.
After eight weeks of speech therapy, it returned completely, but her Canadian tones had become Caledonian.
In September 2010, she and husband Doug travelled to Scotland to piece together the history of her ancestors, who emigrated to Canada more than 100 years ago.
Sharon, 50, who recently started riding horses again, said: "Doctors have said I might have the Scottish accent for the rest of my life, or it might just disappear overnight but I don't think it's going anywhere fast.
"I could have ended up with any accent - French, Spanish, even Klingon - but I got Scottish. It was definitely a sign.
"The accident has completely turned my life around. "I strongly believe it was a message telling me this is how things were meant to be."
Since her Scots trip, Sharon has been battling to cope with the other symptoms of her brain trauma, which make it difficult for her to make decisions, concentrate and problem solve.
She also suffers extreme sensitivity to light, severe headaches and anxiousness around crowds.
The mum has now turned her horse-riding retreat into a therapy centre for people recovering from brain injuries and started writing a book, which she hopes to finish this year.
She added: "I wanted to write it for myself and to tell my story - but also to help other people going through a similar experience.
"Brain injuries can be hard for people to understand because there are no physical signs.
"But they change your life. It's been like starting all over again. I'm a completely different person."
Doctors believe the unusual condition can be sparked by a traumatic brain injury or stroke and has even been found in people with multiple sclerosis.
Speech may be altered in terms of timing, intonation and tongue placement.
Other foreign accent syndrome cases
Plymouth woman Sarah Colwill's tones changed from West Country to Chinese after she suffered a severe migraine.
Glaswegian grandmother Debbie McCann started speaking with an Italian accent after a stroke.
Australian Leanne Rowe's accent changed from Tasmanian to French after she recovered from injuries sustained in a car accident.
The English tones of Deborah Ballard, from East Sussex, transformed into Welsh following a stroke.
Others include a British woman who began speaking with a Jamaican accent after a stroke, a Scottish man who sounded Polish after a car accident and an American woman who spoke like a Russian after falling down a staircase.
http://i.imgur.com/YWgxDin.jpg
A mum from Canada who fell off a horse and woke up with a Scottish accent is writing a book about her life-changing experience.
Sharon Campbell-Rayment, 50, regained her speech several days after the accident, in Ontario in 2008.
She had a Scots accent. and started using words such as "wee", "grand", "awright" and "brilliant".
Doctors later diagnosed foreign accent syndrome - a rare condition associated with head injuries, which affects only 60 people worldwide.
Sharon, a mum-of-two who ran a horse-riding school, says the disorder is a blessing and led to her tracing her family's Scottish roots.
She'd never been to Scotland before the horror fall, is now penning a book about her experience.
Doctors originally diagnosed concussion. When her voice started to come back, she had an uncontrollable stutter.
After eight weeks of speech therapy, it returned completely, but her Canadian tones had become Caledonian.
In September 2010, she and husband Doug travelled to Scotland to piece together the history of her ancestors, who emigrated to Canada more than 100 years ago.
Sharon, 50, who recently started riding horses again, said: "Doctors have said I might have the Scottish accent for the rest of my life, or it might just disappear overnight but I don't think it's going anywhere fast.
"I could have ended up with any accent - French, Spanish, even Klingon - but I got Scottish. It was definitely a sign.
"The accident has completely turned my life around. "I strongly believe it was a message telling me this is how things were meant to be."
Since her Scots trip, Sharon has been battling to cope with the other symptoms of her brain trauma, which make it difficult for her to make decisions, concentrate and problem solve.
She also suffers extreme sensitivity to light, severe headaches and anxiousness around crowds.
The mum has now turned her horse-riding retreat into a therapy centre for people recovering from brain injuries and started writing a book, which she hopes to finish this year.
She added: "I wanted to write it for myself and to tell my story - but also to help other people going through a similar experience.
"Brain injuries can be hard for people to understand because there are no physical signs.
"But they change your life. It's been like starting all over again. I'm a completely different person."
Doctors believe the unusual condition can be sparked by a traumatic brain injury or stroke and has even been found in people with multiple sclerosis.
Speech may be altered in terms of timing, intonation and tongue placement.
Other foreign accent syndrome cases
Plymouth woman Sarah Colwill's tones changed from West Country to Chinese after she suffered a severe migraine.
Glaswegian grandmother Debbie McCann started speaking with an Italian accent after a stroke.
Australian Leanne Rowe's accent changed from Tasmanian to French after she recovered from injuries sustained in a car accident.
The English tones of Deborah Ballard, from East Sussex, transformed into Welsh following a stroke.
Others include a British woman who began speaking with a Jamaican accent after a stroke, a Scottish man who sounded Polish after a car accident and an American woman who spoke like a Russian after falling down a staircase.