Chris Birch, a Welsh former rugby player, says that after breaking his neck during practice while doing a backflip, and then suffering a stroke, he woke up gay and decided to become a hairdresser.
It's a rather bizarre story from the UK's Daily Mail:
Before the accident Chris was planning on settling down with his girlfriend, although they were having a break from each other at the time of his accident. He worked in a bank and spent his weekends watching sport and drinking beer with his rugby friends. But after the stroke he found he was no longer interested in sport and had little in common with his old friends. He quit his job to become a hairdresser and started dating a man he met at a club night.
Birch says his neurologist told him the stroke may have opened a new area of his brain.
Said Birch: "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…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 19st skinhead to a 11st preened man. People I used to know barely recognised me and with my new look I became even more confident.'
