A 29-year-old has shared how her life 'changed forever' after ignoring harmless warning signs on vacation that ended with her waking up speaking with a Thai accent.
Cathy Warren was celebrating her 28th birthday on a girls’ trip to Fethiye, Turkey, in September last year when the unthinkable happened.
The group had planned a big meal out, but the Brit never made it to dinner.
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As she walked through the resort with friends, Cathy suddenly felt dizzy and then realized her legs wouldn’t move.
"We were walking to dinner and we'd just taken some pictures [...] and suddenly I couldn't walk," the financial administrator said.
"My legs wouldn't move, so my friend put me on a sun lounger and went to get help."
Earlier that day, Cathy had brushed off what she thought was just heat stroke after suffering from a 'bad headache', but her condition quickly worsened.
Hotel staff initially thought she was drunk when they brought a wheelchair to her, but Cathy was rushed to hospital shortly after, where scans revealed she’d actually suffered a stroke.
When she woke up, Cathy says she was stunned - the left side of her body was paralyzed and her southern English accent had completely changed.
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She was later diagnosed with foreign accent syndrome, a rare speech condition that can make someone’s voice sound completely different. According to the UK's National Health Service (NHS), it is extremely rare and often follows strokes or other brain injuries.
"I don't think my voice is ever going to be the same," Cathy shared.
"I used to have a British voice but I woke up and my accent was different. My mom's from Thailand so she has a Thai accent. I would say that the accent I have now sounds like hers - it's Thai, it's foreign."
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Doctors believe the sudden change may have been triggered by both her brain injury and the fact her mom speaks with a Thai accent. Cathy has since completed speech therapy, but says her voice hasn’t gone back to the way it was.
"I feel like I lost part of my identity," she added.
Cathy spent a month in a Turkish hospital before flying home to Hampshire in October 2024, she then spent another two months in hospital and three months in rehab learning to walk again.
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"I needed three people to walk at first… I’d say it took 10 months to get to the point where I could walk independently," she added.
Sadly for Cathy, doctors can’t guarantee her British accent will ever return.
Joe Yates