British woman who woke up with Chinese accent after stroke shares 15-year ordeal: ‘People told me to get exorcism’

A UK woman who suffered a stroke and woke up with a Chinese accent has broken her silence over the torment she has faced for 15 years while struggling to cope with her new way of speaking.

According to Daily Mail, Sarah Colwill was 35 when her own Devon accent disappeared overnight in 2010 and her new accent has led to her facing racial abuses. Hers is one of only 100 known cases of foreign accent syndrome (FAS) in the world. FAS is a rare neurological condition where a person's speech patterns change, leading to a perceived foreign accent by others.

Now, 50 years old, Colwill still speaks with a Chinese accent despite having never visited Asia in her life.

Called a freak

The Plymouth resident claimed that the life-changing medical incident lead to even her own family calling her a 'freak' and an 'embarrassment' after she developed the new accent.

Over the years, those who met her even accused her of being 'possessed by the devil' and telling her to get an 'exorcism'.

"I can't describe how it feels when your society, your country turns against you and doesn't recognise you as a resident anymore - and tells you to go back to where you came from. I haven't got anywhere to go. If you don't want me, where am I meant to go? If you don't believe me and you think this is all a fake, that's fine. Get on with your life. Don't feel the need to send me messages about how ugly I am or what a faker I am," she said, adding that the years of bullying has led her to feel suicidal.

A medical mystery

While doctors have never been able to figure out what caused her stroke, it has left her with neurological impairments being unable to walk and speak the same.

Colwill has been accused of insulting to the Asian community and being a racist by blatantly mimicking an accent, has faced hate for decades.

However, her Asian friends have stood by her. "I used to go to a regular Chinese restaurant and I was quite friendly with the owner, so she knew me before it happened. When we were speaking to each other, she had no problem. She didn't feel like I was taking the mick or anything like that. She just accepted how I spoke, because to her I didn't sound Chinese," she said.

When she first developed the accent, many people claimed that she sounded Chinese but she could never understand why they said so. "I didn't associate it with any particular accent. It wasn't until I saw a neurologist in Newcastle, and he made me read this speech out which amplifies any speech impediments that you have, and it wasn't until I heard the recording back of that that I was shocked at how I sounded," she said.

While many have labelled her accent as Australian, Spanish or Polish, Colwill still hopes that her Plymothian accent will one day return.