It was a week after Kim Hall’s surgery when her sister first noticed something different about her voice.
“My mom and my sister came to visit me, and my sister said to my mom, ‘oh, she sounds very posh’,” the 57-year-old told news.com.au.
Hall, who grew up in Goulburn in regional NSW, had just undergone a jaw reconstruction after being diagnosed with Squamous Cell Carcinoma — a form of cancer, in her lower jaw.
Soon other people, including her surgeon, also pointed out the difference in her voice.
“I thought they were a bit stupid,” she joked. “I thought I’ve not changed, I’m the same.”
But Hall, who was struggling to talk following the surgery, eventually came to hear it too.
Instead of her typical Aussie twang, she was speaking with what has been described as a northern English accent.
“Some say I sound like I am from Yorkshire in England. I have never been to England so only from what they hear, that is where and how I sound,” said Hall, who remarked she never had any desire to visit the UK but may have to fly over now given the circumstances.
The change in voice is known as foreign accent syndrome — a rare neurological condition that tends to be brought on by a stroke or a brain injury.
However, in Hall’s case, the change unusually occurred after her surgery in 2021, leaving doctors baffled.
Hall had undergone the surgery after a visit to the dentist for a toothache, which led to a biopsy and a subsequent cancer diagnosis.
“Never in my wildest dream did I ever think it was head (and) neck cancer,” she said. “Shocked was an understatement.”
The diagnosis did, however, offer some relief — finally providing an answer as to why she was in “so much pain” for months.
Hall underwent 34 rounds of radiation and chemotherapy, as well as numerous other surgeries as part of her treatment.
“I remember my surgeon said to me when I first met him ‘I can get rid of your cancer, but your jaw will never ever be the same again’,” she recalled. “And he’s (been) true with that.”
Hall was left to learn how to talk, swallow and drink again.
While she is grateful the treatment removed the cancer, she does sometimes miss her original Aussie voice.
“That is who I am. The voice now I do struggle with it at times” she said.
Working as a support worker at a school in Goulburn can also be challenging at times.
“I come to work and I get frustrated a lot because there are words I cannot pronounce because of the Australian vocabulary. I sometimes can’t get the words out to do little things with the children at school.”
The word Australia, for example, can be a challenge to pronounce.
“I also don’t say ‘mum,’ now it’s ‘mom’, when I pronounce it.”
Hall has also lost her taste and can’t eat solid foods since her operations.
“Everything I eat or drink, I smell. So when I have a coffee, I like to smell it.”
“I can’t eat still, I’m still on smoothies and purees, socializing is another aspect of it. You don’t go out because when you do go out, you’ve got to find somewhere where they have a smoothie or a soup that is smooth.”
Despite the challenges, she is happy to be cancer-free and remains positive about the future as she continues to work with her speech therapist.
“I’m alive, I don’t care how I speak,” she said.
“To a point, I would love to go back to my old self, like everyone that deals with cancer but I don’t want to dwell on it. I want to try and look forward to my future in whatever it may be.”
An ‘unusual case’
Foreign accent syndrome is extremely rare, with 112 cases recorded around the world up until 2019.
Despite the condition’s name, speech pathologist Dr. Emma Charter, who is helping with Hall’s rehabilitation, said the change in speech is “actually not another accent”.
“It’s a speech disorder that primarily affects the vowels,” Dr. Charter told news.com.au.
“Vowels carry a lot of accents. So what’s actually happened is her brain has sort of created a change in the way her vowels sound and we as listeners match that to something we’re familiar with … making it sound like she has a Yorkshire accent.”
Hall’s case itself is particularly unusual.
“I was very surprised,” Dr. Carter said of learning about her voice change
“Most of the time, the cause is attributed to either a stroke or a brain injury. It’s much more rare to surgeries. But it’s not unheard of.”
Dr. Carter said while Hall has put a lot of effort into her rehabilitation, it’s unlikely her voice will change back to her Aussie accent.
“The vowel changes that sound like a different accent aren’t budging despite the fact that we’ve tried a fair bit of work.
“Sometimes people can learn to control their vowels and change the way they speak to perhaps go back to an Australian-sounding accent, but it takes a lot of work, and almost like rewiring your brain.”
As she continues her speech therapy, Hall is sharing her story to raise awareness about head and neck cancer — the seventh most common cancer diagnosed in Australia — and Surfebruary, where participants raise money much-needed money for cancer research at Chris O’Brien Lifehouse by surfing or taking a dip every day of the month.
For Hall, it’s all about giving back after she was one of the first recipients of ‘Restorabite’, a 3D-printed rehabilitation device, funded through Surfebruary.
“Kim was one of the first people to try Restorabite as a result of this funding. She was went from a mouth opening of less than a centimetre to almost three centimetres which meant she could eat, talk and brush her teeth properly,” said Dr. Carter.
“One of the most extraordinary things about Kim is that she has then given back and is one of the most dedicated participants of SurFebruay now.”
This February, Kim is supporting the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse ‘SurFebruary’ campaign, encouraging all Aussies to hop in the water every day and raise funds for vital cancer research projects. You can donate here.
