'Am I ever going to sound Aussie again?': A young woman's emotional plea to be normal after falling victim to a bizarre medical mystery
The idea is so bizarre, you'd be forgiven for questioning if it could possibly be real.
But for Angie Yen and Kate Baggs, Foreign Accent Syndrome is their strange new reality.
"The Australian accent that I've known for a very long time was just wiped out overnight," Angie tells reporter Sarah Abo.
Angie first went onto social media platform TikTok to share her inexplicable affliction. 60 Minutes
The 28-year-old from Brisbane now speaks with a distinctly Irish accent even though she's never been to Ireland in her life.
"There were many days where there were tears, there was anger, there's frustration," she says.
Not knowing exactly where to turn, Angie first went onto social media platform TikTok to share her inexplicable affliction, but was met with disbelievers and trolls, who were convinced she was faking the entire thing.
The ridicule hurt.
The 28-year-old from Brisbane now speaks with a distinctly Irish accent 60 Minutes
"I'm sick of being taken as a joke. It's a very serious thing," she says.
However, speech pathologist, Professor Kirrie Ballard is in no doubt.
She says Angie's condition is real.
"Foreign Accent Syndrome is a legitimate disorder," she says.
"It's described as a person's speech changing, so that it sounds as though they're speaking in a different accent to their habitual accent."
Professor Ballard tells Abo that FAS can be triggered by psychological or neurological damage, likening the brain to a computer.
Speech pathologist Professor Kirrie Ballard 60 Minutes
That news also comes as a great relief to Kate Baggs, who suffered paralysis in her body after a hemiplegic migraine and gained an Irish accent while in recovery.
"In the middle of a sentence, my accent just shifted," she says.
"It was the strangest feeling."
While Angie and Kate might sound like they belong in an Irish watering hole, the two are still as Aussie as can be, and now, with the help of ground-breaking technology, they're hoping to get even more answers, and a better understanding of what's going on inside their brains.
'In the middle of a sentence, my accent just shifted,' Kate says. 60 Minutes
To see the extraordinary results, watch 60 Minutes on Sunday, straight after Australian Ninja Warrior.
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