Nice Tae Meit Ye! Canadian Woman Begins Talking With Scottish Accent After Falling Off Horse
Jan. 8 2014, Published 7:13 a.m. ET
Meet Sharon Campbell-Rayment.
The Ontario, Canada native, 50, was diagnosed with a concussion after she fell off a horse in 2008. The next morning, she suddenly began stuttering, and subsequently speaking with a Scottish affect after the fall -- even using Scot phrases such as "wee" and "awright" in her statements.
Upon examining the woman, doctors linked her symptoms to a scarce foreign-accent syndrome, which has impacted just 60 people worldwide, most in connection with brain injuries.
But in a case of making lemonade, the accident and subsequent affect led Campbell-Rayment to get in touch with her Scottish roots, having had ancestors there more than a century ago.
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"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," she told The Mirror. "I could have ended up with any accent -- French, Spanish, even Klingon -- but I got Scottish.
"It was definitely a sign."
Campbell-Rayment, who visited the country four years ago, has now penned a book about her unlikely path.
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"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."