Family Voices Webinar Series

The Huntington's Disease UK and Ireland Alliance is hosting a series of lived experiences, 'Family Voices'. Family members from across the Huntington’s disease community will share their experience. Most webinars have been recorded and are available online.

The Huntington's Disease Alliance is delighted to welcome author Erin Paterson for the next in our series of Family Voices webinars.

Erin has recently published a book of stories from the Huntington's community called 'Huntington’s Disease Heroes' – Inspiring Stories of Resilience from the Huntington's Community.

A Canadian author and public speaker, Erin Paterson tested gene positive for Huntington’s disease. Shortly after she started suffering from depression, then received more crushing news, she was infertile. Despite those diagnoses she was determined to have a family and live a joyful life.

     Register here

Family Voices - In conversation with Astri Arnesen, 7pm Thursday 23 March 2023

Astri, who is from Norway, will be sharing her own experiences of living in a family where there is Huntington's disease and discussing how she and her family coped with her being at risk. Astri will also be talking to us about the European Huntington's Association and its work advocating for Huntington's families and building bridges with the scientists researching potential Huntington's treatments.

Register for this webinar 

Previous Episodes

We hosted a Huntington's at Christmas Family Voices on December 5th. Specialist occupational therapist Alex Fisher  shared some tips to help the festivities go a bit more smoothly and family carer and author Melanie Pearson (from the first Family Voices session) spoke about some of her own family Christmases and how she navigated bumps along the way.

PROOF-HD is a Phase 3 study in Huntington's disease and results are expected in 2023. The global study will be evaluating Pridopidine for the treatment of Huntington’s disease.

Dr. Michael Hayden, CEO of Prilenia, along with investigators Professor Anne Rosser and Dr Duncan McLauchlan provided an overview and insights into the progress of PROOF-HD. Dina De Sousa, HD advocate and family gave her perspective on HD research. A recording is available here: Proof-HD A Study Update 

Charles Sabine OBE, a former Emmy-winning news journalist for NBC, is from a family affected by HD. He has travelled the world advocating for Huntington's families and in 2017 co-organised an event where the Pope met a number of Huntington's families, documented by the film 'Dancing at the Vatican'.

        See: Charles Sabine | Family voices | Huntington's disease - YouTube

The third webinar features Siobhan whose husband has a 50% chance of developing Huntington’s disease. Together, Siobhan and her husband made the decision not to find out if he carries the faulty gene.     

    Siobhan Shares her PGD Journey

  "We don’t know, and we don’t want to know."

After much research, they decided to opt for pre-implantation diagnosis (PGD IVF). Siobhan shares her personal experience of finding out about Huntington’s disease and her PGD journey. 

For our second episode, we were joined by Sarah Winckless MBE and Sean a family member from Ireland.

 See: Sarah Winckless and Sean | Family voices | Huntington's disease - YouTube

Sarah Winckless MBE is a British rower and former star of Team GB. She has a bronze medal from the 2004 Athens Olympics and was twice world champion (2005, 2006). In 2005 Sarah came to Ireland to share her Olympic joy with us and she met Sean who has been a huge fan ever since!

Huntington’s disease is in Sarah’s family on her mother’s side. Sarah and her family supported her mum as she lived with the disease until she passed away in 2020. Sean and his family continue to support Sean's Dad. Sarah and Sean share their experiences of growing up in families impacted by HD. Sarah also shares her hope for the future and the inspiration she draws from the Huntington’s community.

For our first episode on May 16th, 2022 Melanie Pearson spoke about the impact of Huntington's disease on her family and about why it inspired her to write a book.  The recording is now available here: Family Voices In Conversation with Melanie Pearson

Mel says:

"For all the agony and distress it can cause, it’s amazing how Huntington’s can bring people together – people in the same situation, who understand. This is a short talk from the personal point of view of a survivor. My mum and brother both had the illness and I grew up at risk so it’s something that has deeply affected my life. I’ve written a memoir about my family and the impact HD has had on us all, and how we coped. I hope that sharing our experience might be helpful for other families."

The Huntington’s Disease Alliance was established to promote awareness of Huntington’s disease and improve support for families across the UK and Ireland. The Alliance consists of four independent charities, Huntington's Disease Association, Scottish Huntington's Association, Huntington's Disease Association Northern Ireland and Huntington's Disease Association of Ireland. The organisations within the Alliance share the common goal of helping people who live with Huntington’s disease to achieve the best quality of life possible. Collectively, the Huntington’s Disease Alliance also strives to universally increase understanding and raise awareness of the impact of the disease on individuals and families affected.