Gene genie
A flip of the coin” is how scientists refer to Huntington’s Disease (HD). Because if one of your parents has the fatal neurodegenerative disease, then you have a 50% chance of inheriting it.
Tails, you’re OK; heads, you face a progressive disease that causes parts of the brain to die slowly, resulting in uncoordinated body movements, slurred and eventual loss of speech, psychiatric issues, dementia and ultimately death.
Lillian Hanly was in Year 10 at Auckland Girls’ Grammar School when her birth mother, Tamsin tested positive for HD in 2008. Tamsin sat Lillian and her two brothers down to explain what would happen, which was a bit like watching a gift you don’t want being unwrapped, says the now-27-year-old.
“I’ve never felt alarmed
