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Huntington's Disease Awareness Week 2005

There was an excellent turn out for The Huntington’s Disease Association’s North Kent Support Group’s Grand Calorie Event on Wednesday 22nd June.

The group held an Afternoon Tea & Cakes event in the garden of Sandra Abbott’s home in Otford. Sandra, together with Nicola Jones,  runs the North Kent Support Group, which meets on the second Thursday of each month in Sidcup.

Sandra Abbott (on the left) with a member of the public. Sandra is one of the co-ordinators of the North Kent Support Group.

The group is open to anyone affected by Huntington’s Disease (HD) – an inherited degenerative neuropsychiatric disorder that affects males and females equally at a rate of about 1 in every 10,000 people in most Western countries. The majority of victims start showing symptoms at between 30 - 50 years old, but about 10% have juvenile HD with onset in childhood or during the teenage years. Every child born to a person with the defective gene that causes HD has a 50% risk of inheriting the gene and therefore developing the disease. Some families have 3 generations affected simultaneously. Huntington’s Disease destroys areas of the brain and robs its victims of the ability to think, walk, talk, and eat over a period of years. Families affected by HD have likened it to having Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Schizophrenia all at the same time. There is, as yet, no cure but there are medications for some of the symptoms. No two people have exactly the same symptoms, not even if they are a brother and sister diagnosed within six weeks of each other as was the case for my husband and sister-in-law.

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© Sue Wright 2004 -2012