Scottish Huntington’s Association (SHA) was established over 30 years ago by families and has grown into an extensive Scotland-wide network of specialist clinical services, financial wellbeing support and youth services. Huntington’s disease (HD) is a hereditary, life-shortening, neurological illness. The symptoms of HD are described as having Motor Neurone’s (MND), Parkinson’s and Dementia simultaneously.
SHA works in close partnership with the member organisations of the Neurological Alliance of Scotland. The Neurological Alliance of Scotland is an umbrella body of organisations that represent people with a neurological condition and those who support them.
In Scotland around 1,200 people have HD, with a further 6,000 estimated to be living at high genetic risk of inheriting the life-shortening disease. Scottish Huntington’sAssociation (SHA) is the only charity in Scotland dedicated to supporting patients and carers affected by HD.The rarity of the disease means that most Health and Social Care professionals will have little or no experience of dealing with somebody with HD. We believe that training/education provide one of the major keys to improving service delivery to people with HD.
SHA said “It is only through the support of organisations such as The Alan Davidson Foundation that we are able to continue providing our vital services which make so much difference every day to the lives of people living in a HD family.”
