[bbfan1991]

A woman from Birmingham has described how she recovered from a severe case of the flu only to discover she had developed a French accent.

Mum of two Debie Royston, who has never been to France, suffered a series of seizures and was unable to speak for a month.

Once her voice returned, her West Midlands accent had been replaced with a French-sounding twang.

"I had a bad seizure and when it stopped my mouth wouldn't work. Over the next month, I had to learn to speak again. But when I did, I heard a different sound, not my Brummie accent. I sounded French but I've never even been there," Royston told The Mirror.

"People say to me, 'Where are you from?' and when I say 'Birmingham' they say, 'No, you're French'. I couldn't see the funny side at first but you learn to laugh.

"Sometimes it would be easier to say I'm from France but then people might start talking French to me! Someone said my accent now sounds sexy and it would be a shame if my Brummie one comes back. That upset me because I liked my old accent."

Royston is one of just 60 people worldwide known to suffer from foreign accent syndrome.

Professor Nick Miller, a Newcastle University speech disorders expert, diagnosed Royston with the condition a year ago, but was unable to determine the exact cause.

He said: "She appears to have suffered seizures, but other factors may be present. For most, sounding foreign is a temporary phase of days, weeks or months. The number left with a permanent foreign accent is relatively few."

Royston quit her job as a teaching assistant because of the seizures, and husband Andy worked from home for six months to look after her.