An Australian woman says that her migraine became so bad that it caused her to develop an Irish accent.
Kate Baggs suffers from hemiplegic migraines, which are a rare kind of migraine that can affect the way a person speaks.
Hemiplegic migraines cause persistent headaches and can lead the sufferer to go into paralysis or even suffer a stroke.
In Kate’s case, it has led to ‘foreign accent syndrome. A few years ago, she developed a Canadian accent, despite never having been to Canada.
Now, although she has never been to Ireland, she has developed an Irish accent during a holiday with her godparents.
She told the Sun: “I was at the shop buying a toothbrush and I started the sentence sounding like the Australian me and by the end of the sentence I realised something was odd.
“My godmother thought I was making a joke, mimicking something from a movie we were talking about.
“It’s been Irish ever since and it doesn’t show any signs of going away anytime soon.”
The 30-year-old says that the reason her accent is affected is that when the migraines come along they take place in the part of the brain that is responsible for speech and language.
Kate’s migraines are not thought to be having a lasting affect on her brain and she looks on the positive side of life.
She hopes that her issue will help her fir in with the locals next time she goes on holiday.
She said: “People usually tell me: ‘it’s so authentic, you sound like you could be from Ireland’.
“Going to Ireland has always been a dream of mine – hopefully it will be my next trip and I’ll be able to sound like a local.”
Take a look at the video below.
