Testing for Huntington's Disease: September 2, 2021

Would you get tested for a fatal disease that you have a fifty percent of inheriting from your parents?

It is a decision that journalist (and bFM's former news director) Lillian Hanly has to make.

The disease in question is Huntington's Disease, a genetic neurodegenerative condition that passes on from an affected parent.  The probability for their children inheriting the disease is fifty percent and it does not skip generations.

The condition affects part of the brain from working properly over time, impacting movement, behaviour, and cognition.  It will become harder to walk, talk, reason, and swallow for those who have the condition, and it is incurable.

Lillian is now facing the question in her new documentary Fifty Percent as her grandfather, the New Zealand artist Pat Hanly, and her biological mother all have the disease.

She spoke to Justin Wong.