The beginning is a bit of a blur.
It started three years ago.
Jude Murray was a chef working for Arana College at the University of Otago when she had a stroke.
"Which I didn’t expect at 47."
She woke up at Wakari Hospital with little knowledge of how she got there.
"I was out cold, so I really didn’t know what I was there for."
She felt numb over much of her body and had a nasogastric feeding tube as she could not swallow, meaning she was also unable to speak until the tube could be removed.
The stroke left Miss Murray with aphasia, a disability that affects people’s communication.
Over about five weeks she gradually recovered some movement, working with therapists at the Puāwai rehabilitation unit.
After returning home she continued her recovery, working with speech language therapist Warren Cossou for more than a year to regain speech.
"It was because of him I came through, I like Warren ... we had fun."
Three years on and Miss Murray had some restricted movement on her right side and ongoing effects of aphasia affected her speech.
She goes to the gym daily, working with Nick Chisholm’s Iron Warriors group for people recovering after a stroke or brain injury, based at SkyFit24 Gym in Moray Place.
"It is getting better, there is a gradual improvement."
One aspect that has changed however is her accent.
Her voice now sounded like her father.
"He is a Shetland Islander and I’ve kind of taken on his Shetland Island accent, and I have never been there ever."
Instead Miss Murray had grown up in Lyttelton.
"All my brothers and sisters have a Kiwi accent, as I used to have."
Although it was a change for her family and friends she knew one person who would have appreciated her change in accent.
"If my dad were here, he would love it, he would love it."
Speech therapist Alison Zani is the co-ordinator of the Dunedin Aphasia Support Group.
She said a change of accent was a rare consequence of a neurological change and not necessarily related to aphasia.
It was not intentional, instead it was just part of how Miss Murray’s brain now processed her words.
Aphasia was a little known "invisible" disability that affected communication.
About one-third of people who have had a stroke were left with aphasia, and other causes of aphasia included traumatic brain injury, neurological conditions or progressive primary aphasia, a neurological disorder that caused language to slowly decline, Ms Zani said.
Miss Murray said the main thing when talking to people with aphasia was to be patient.
Sometimes it took time to formulate words, but that did not mean people with aphasia needed help to finish a sentence.
"When you have a sentence and then they decide to put a word in, it is like ‘no, no, no, that is not what I was saying’."
The Dunedin Aphasia Support Group is holding an exhibition entitled "Voices of Aphasia" at the Community Gallery on Princes St as part of Aphasia Awareness Month.
The exhibition features photos by Justine Weatherall accompanied by interviews with local people living with aphasia, including Miss Murray.
Ms Zani said the aim of the exhibition was to demystify aphasia and provide some insight into what it was like living with the condition.
This was the first time Dunedin had hosted an exhibition focused solely on people with aphasia, and the group members hoped it would help more people understand the condition.
Information about aphasia would be available at the exhibition, and people could also search for the Dunedin Aphasia Support Group on Facebook, Ms Zani said.
- "Voices of Aphasia" runs from next Thursday to next Sunday at the Community Gallery at 26 Princes St.
