Becky Sharrock is a 26-year-old Brisbane woman and a big Harry Potter fan. But unlike your typical fan, who might loosely remember plot lines and characters, Sharrock has a rare ability that stunned 60 Minutes reporter Allison Langdon.

She can remember every single word from every single book.

And that’s just one way her rare brain condition plays out.

Sharrock is one of only approximately 80 people in the world with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM), or hyperthymesia. Her memory is so powerful that she can remember every day of her life -- recalling not only minor events, but the emotions that accompanied them, as though they happened just moments ago.

Her earliest memory is of her mother taking a photo of her when she was 12 days old.

"I remember every day since then," she told Mail Online last year.

"Some of them I can’t date exactly because I was too young to understand calendars, but I remember what I did that day, what the weather was like and so on."

On Sunday night's episode of 60 Minutes, Allison Langdon accompanied Sharrock to the US, where she met with doctors who have treated other patients with HSAM.

Speaking to news.com.au, Langdon said, "It’s quite phenomenal how it works. The brain is like a DVD with different chapters and they can see it and picture it and jump forwards or backwards.

"She always felt everyone remembers things like she can but they could deal with it. She doesn’t understand how we forget things."

For the forgetful among us (I don't remember what I had for lunch yesterday), Sharrock's unique ability seems like a blessing. But she's adamant that it can often feel like a burden.

She says her most painful memories constantly feel like they happened yesterday. She relives events so vividly, she says she can actually feel pain when recalling childhood injuries.

Langdon told news.com.au, "Becky's really struggled because she's very literal and say she's walking down the street and someone bumps her shoulder, that will trigger a memory from when she was seven and a kid walked past, bumped her and knocked her over. She's right back there living it all.

"One of our great abilities as a human is that we can forget, get rid of the stuff that’s not important. However, they can remember insignificant events just as clearly.

"That’s why a lot of people with the condition say it's a burden."

Likewise, while it would seem that school would be particularly easy for someone with such a strong memory, Sharrock found it incredibly difficult. "Information overload" made it hard to focus on important information, and discount superfluous memories.

To add to her struggles, Sharrock is the only person worldwide to be diagnosed with both HSAM and autism. She also has obsessive compulsive disorder, and suffers from anxiety.

But her condition is fascinating to doctors, and for good reason.

Researchers think studying Sharrock's brain might provide crucial information when it comes to understanding neurological disorders like Alzheimers.

Interestingly, it was while watching 60 Minutes in 2011 that Sharrock's mother, Janet Barnes, became aware that her daughter had HSAM. The episode featured patients recalling memories as part of a US study, and it dawned on Barnes, 51, that this was the condition her daughter was experiencing.

Since the diagnosis, Sharrock has "blossomed," becoming more independent and positive.

At present,  HSAM is poorly understood, with doctors unable to say whether patients are born with the condition,  or develop it.