OTTAWA, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Huntington Society of Canada (HSC) and social media company Shared are pleased to announce One Extra Push, an awareness campaign aimed at educating Canadians about Huntington disease (HD).
About one in every 7,000 Canadians has HD and approximately one in every 5,500 is at-risk of developing the incurable and fatal debilitating brain disorder.
One Extra Push centres around 30-year-old Amanda Munro, whose mother was diagnosed with Huntington disease 10 years ago.
“Our goal as an organization is to help share stories that create a conversation,” says Shared CEO, Jordan Nabigon. “When one of our employees opened up about this private side of her life, it touched our staff in a way we didn’t expect and started a bigger discussion around the cards we're dealt in life and how we choose to deal with adversity.”
Huntington disease is a genetic disorder, leaving each child of a parent with the disease at a 50% chance of inheriting it. Symptoms usually appear between the ages of 30 and 50, but the disease can also appear in children or seniors.
“The first time I ever heard of HD was when my mother was diagnosed,” says Munro. “Talking about it with friends was difficult, not only is it not overly relatable, but people simply don’t know much about it. It became my secret, but overtime I began to ask, if people weren’t aware of the disease is it because not enough people are talking about?”
As the disease progresses, a person with HD becomes less able to manage movements, recall events, make decisions and control emotions. The disease leads to incapacitation and, eventually, death. Many describe the symptoms of HD as having ALS, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s simultaneously.
“Helping others understand Huntington disease and finding answers for HD and other diseases like ALS, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s are key objectives,” says Bev Heim-Myers, HSC CEO. “The more people that are aware of HD and the impact it has on so many families, the more resources we will be able to generate for research and family services. We are so thankful to Amanda for sharing her story and to the team at Shared for their generous support of this campaign.”
To hear Amanda’s story and to be a part of the conversation visit OneExtraPush.ca.
About the Huntington Society of Canada
The Huntington Society of Canada (HSC) is a respected leader in the worldwide effort to find a meaningful treatment for HD. HSC is the only Canadian health charity dedicated to providing help and hope for families dealing with HD across Canada. HSC aspires for a world free from Huntington disease. For more information about HD and HSC visit www.huntingtonsociety.ca.
About Shared
Headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Shared operates in the digital content industry as both a creator and curator of content that is tested and optimized for social media. Shared has a combined social reach of more than 30 million fans across multiple Facebook Pages, generating over 1 billion views on videos monthly and has more than 2 million visitors a day to its website www.shared.com.
