- What does the Huntington-Dendefek mean for those affected?
- In Germany, around 8,000 to 12,000 people are affected
- Alina lets us participate in her personal story
When Alina talks about her life, it is not about careers, milestones or the great sense. She speaks of the forest. The 34-year-old is drawn between the trees with her dog every day. There she feels hugged – from the calm, from the rustling of the leaves, from the soft light. Alina is important to fill her life with beautiful things: an illness in her body slumbers that ultimately leads to death and could break out at any time.
About ten years ago, Alina sits in the meeting room of a medical practice. It can be tested for a genetic defect that will inevitably lead to the Huntington disease. According to the German Huntington-Hilfe, an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 people with Huntington live in Germany, and Alina’s father also broke out the hereditary disease at the time of her genetic test. For Alina and her brother, this means: a risk of fifty percent to develop it themselves.
