A 55-year-old mother-of-three has lost 20 years of memories after she hit her head during a minor accident at work.
Kay Delaney’s last memory was tucking her young son and daughter into bed sometime in the early 1990s.
In her head, she is convinced she is still 34 years old and she has no concept of the last two decades – and even struggles to remember the birth of her youngest son, now 20.
Explaining her “unbearable sense of guilt” over the implications of her memory-loss, Delaney says she “cannot even begin to describe the pain and sense of loss at being left without a sense of motherhood”, reports the Telegraph.
“I have no memory of my eldest two children graduating from university - a proud moment in any parents life, added Delaney.
"My youngest son is a stranger to me and the guilt I feel over that is almost unbearable."
Delaney’s house is littered with post-it notes and reminders on how to make cups of tea and what a mobile phone and computer is, after she was diagnosed with retrograde amnesia (a condition that causes you to lose memories you previously made, from the most recent to the oldest).
However, most remarkably, although Delaney struggles to remember recent events, she has somehow gained the ability to speak another language.
Delaney regularly shocks her husband Peter by reciting an Edith Piaf song – in fluent French.
Jeanette Tasker, service manager at charity Headway Cambridgeshire who support Kay, told The Sun:
“Retrograde amnesia can completely change someone’s personality. This is difficult for the person and their family so we support everyone affected.
“People have been known to be able to speak languages and play instruments that they never could before after an accident.
"The brain is the most amazing organ.”
Take a look at foods that 'reportedly' boost brain power...
