{"id":137646,"date":"2025-10-22T05:44:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T05:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/137646\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T05:44:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T05:44:14","slug":"jersey-woman-says-a-cloud-has-lifted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/137646\/","title":{"rendered":"Jersey woman says ‘a cloud has lifted’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris CraddockJersey communities reporter<\/p>\n

\"BBCBBC<\/p>\n

Laura Elizabeth was overcome by emotion when she heard the news about the new treatment<\/p>\n

A woman whose mother, aunt and grandmother died from Huntington’s disease has described a breakthrough in treating the genetic condition as “totally overwhelming”.<\/p>\n

The disease kills brain kills and starts to affect people in their 30s and 40s before they die a couple of decades later but month researchers found a way to slow the disease by 75%, meaning patients could enjoy decades of quality life<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Laura Elizabeth, 32, from Jersey, said a “big cloud over my future” had lifted after previously deciding not to be tested for the disease as there was no treatment.<\/p>\n

Ashley Delgado, 36, who is in the first stages of the disease, said the breakthrough “was super exciting and much overdue news”.<\/p>\n

\"LauraLaura Elizabeth<\/p>\n

Ms Elizabeth’s mum, Minnie, had Huntington’s symptoms including slurred speech, mood changes and balance problems<\/p>\n

The disease runs through families and resembles a combination of dementia, Parkinson’s and motor neurone disease.<\/p>\n

Ms Elizabeth said the news of the breakthrough had given her hope.<\/p>\n

“It was like totally overwhelming,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I just spent the rest of the afternoon kind of like crying.<\/p>\n

“I’ve always had a big cloud over my future and this news feels like it’s lifted and there’s a bit of light which was never there before.”<\/p>\n

\"Ashley<\/p>\n

Ashley Delgado has lost her independence because of Huntington’s disease <\/p>\n

Ms Delgado inherited Huntington’s from her father, Antonio Delgado, who later died from the disease.<\/p>\n

“It’s been difficult in the last year or so,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s meant that I’ve lost my independence a lot more now.”<\/p>\n

“I’m so pleased about the breakthrough because the people involved are at my specialist hospital in London so it’s really exciting.”<\/p>\n

\"AshleyAshley Delgado<\/p>\n

Ms Delgado saw how Huntington’s disease affected her dad when she was a child<\/p>\n

People have a 50\/50 chance of inheriting Huntington’s from a carrying parent, according to the NHS.<\/p>\n

The new treatment is a type of gene therapy given during 12 to 18 hours of delicate brain surgery.<\/p>\n

Ms Delago raised money for Huntington’s Disease Association (HDA) in 2024<\/a> by running the London Marathon because of the help and support the charity had given her.<\/p>\n

\"Huntington'sHuntington’s Disease Association<\/p>\n

Cath Stanley wants people affected by the news to know help is available for the<\/p>\n

The association’s chief executive Cath Stanley said “a 75% reduction in progression is incredible” but added “there’s a long way to go from getting this from a clinical trial to actually prescribed for patients”.<\/p>\n

“For some people this is treatment that will never be possible so to actually reach out and access our support now and in the future is equally important,” she said.<\/p>\n

Simon West, medical director for Health and Care Jersey, said: “We are watching with interest the trials that are ongoing in the UK into treating Huntington’s.<\/p>\n

“Health and Care Jersey is in the process of setting up its own Treatment and Interventions Prioritisation Policy , which will allow us to assess which drugs and treatments make sense for islanders.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris CraddockJersey communities reporter BBC Laura Elizabeth was overcome by emotion when she heard the news about the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[18,135,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-137646","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}