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发帖数: 29846 | 1 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2058921/Chris-Birch-s
Burly rugby player has a stroke after freak gym accident… wakes up gay and
becomes a hairdresser
By Luke Salkeld
UPDATED: 07:30 EST, 9 November 2011
When 19-stone rugby player Chris Birch suffered a stroke during a freak
training accident, his family feared it would be a life-changing injury.
Yet while his recovery certainly brought about a transformation, it seems to
have been in a way no one could have expected.
For when he regained consciousness, the 26-year-old – who was engaged to
his girlfriend – claimed he had become gay.
New life: Chris now works as a hairdresser and lives above the shop with his
boyfriend
Mr Birch’s astonishing change saw him break up with his fiancée, ditch his
job in a bank to retrain as a hairdresser and lose eight stone in weight.
He has now moved in with his 19-year-old boyfriend.
The now ex-rugby player, a flanker with his local amateur reserve side, had
been attempting a back flip in front of friends on a field when he fell down
a grass bank, breaking his neck and suffering the stroke.
Before the stroke: Mr Birch worked in a bank and played rugby
He was taken to hospital where his fiancée and family spent days waiting
anxiously at his bedside before he delivered the shocking news.
Mr Birch recalled: ‘I was gay when I woke up and I still am. It sounds
strange but when I came round I immediately felt different.
‘I wasn’t interested in women any more. I was definitely gay. I had never
been attracted to a man before – I’d never even had any gay friends.
‘But I didn’t care about who I was before, I had to be true to my feelings
.’
Before the accident Mr Birch, of Ystrad Mynach, South Wales, had spent his
weekends watching sport and drinking with his mates.
But he said: ‘Suddenly, I hated everything about my old life. I didn’t get
on with my friends, I hated sport and found my job boring.
‘I started to take more pride in my appearance, bleached my hair and
started working out. I went from a 19-stone skinhead to an 11-stone preened
man.
‘People I used to know barely recognised me and with my new look I became
even more confident.’
How a stroke can re-wire the brain
Mr Birch sought advice from his neurologist and was told it could all be
down to the stroke opening up a different part of his brain.
Two years ago it was reported that Alan Brown, from Malvern, Worcestershire,
woke from a stroke to find he was able to paint and draw in incredible
detail, despite no previous evidence of the skill.
The father of three said the experience must have ‘flicked a switch’ in
the creative part of his brain.
And Mr Birch certainly has no regrets about his transformation. ‘I’m
nothing like the old Chris now but I wouldn’t change a thing,’ he said. |
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