Experience: ‘I woke up with a Welsh accent’

My own family didn’t recognise me when I phoned them

I’ve always been conscious of my accent. In 1996, when I was eight, my family relocated from Kent to Stamford, Lincolnshire, and my estuary accent stuck out like a sore thumb. Everyone sounded so northern to me and I was teased for my “EastEnders voice”. I also struggled to copy accents. When I was 14, we went to Lanzarote, and I made friends with two girls from Liverpool and Birmingham. My attempts to emulate their accents left my family in hysterics. “You sound ridiculous,” my dad laughed.

I kept my Kent accent through my adult life. Then in 2022, I developed functional neurological disorder (FND), a condition that disrupts how the brain communicates with the body. It caused mobility issues and seizures, but I would also sometimes develop a temporary vocal tic or slurred speech. So it didn’t come as a huge surprise when, one day in June 2023, I woke up and my voice sounded different. I assumed it would pass, but two days later I still sounded strange. My neighbour said to me: “You sound just like my aunt. She’s from south Wales.”