VHS Tape Helped This Mom Get Her Voice Back

The day Sarah Ezekiel found an old VHS tape from the 1990s, she thought it was just a sweet home movie of her changing her daughter

But deep in that eight-second clip was something priceless — the sound of her real voice.

Sarah was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) in 2000 and lost the ability to speak not long after. Since then, she’s relied on assistive technology that gave her a robotic, computerized voice. Her children, Aviva and Eric, had never known what their mom really sounded like.

That changed when the family unearthed a short clip from the VHS showing Sarah chatting while caring for baby Aviva. It was only eight seconds long, but it was enough.

Turning Eight Seconds Into a Miracle

Sarah’s family shared the clip with Smartbox, a Bristol-based assistive technology company. Working with AI specialists ElevenLabs, they managed to isolate her voice from the background noise and reconstruct it into a full, natural-sounding voice.

Simon Poole of Smartbox admitted he was doubtful at first. “I thought there’s no way we’re going to be able to create a voice using audio that bad,” he said. But after looping the sample through AI tools, they brought Sarah’s voice back to life.

When Sarah first heard it, she was overwhelmed.

“I love having my voice back. I almost cried when I first heard it. It was a very emotional experience,” she said.

A Gift for Her Children

For her kids, the impact was just as powerful. “It’s amazing, really special and emotional … to be able to hear her as herself — not as a robot,” Aviva said.

Her son Eric agreed: “It really does sound like her … it just comes across more how she is feeling.”

For Sarah, it’s more than just words. “The hardest part with living with MND has been losing my speech. I felt like I had lost my identity,” she explained. Now, her restored voice lets her show more of who she is — whether she’s excited, annoyed, or simply sharing a thought.

Sarah hopes her story will inspire others living with MND or similar conditions.

“I always tell people with good technology and support, anything and everything is possible,” she said.