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What is Huntington’s Disease

WHO ISHuntington’s disease (HD) is a hereditary neuro -degenerative brain disease. Every child of an HD individual has a 50/50 chance of inheriting the same fate. HD is a trinucleotide repeat disor-der where the mutated gene causes unstable CAG (cytosine-adenine-guanine) expansion.Every individual has a CAG repeat, but the nor-mal range is 10-26. An individual with a CAG repeat >38 will have Huntington’s disease at some time in their lifetime. The gene was dis-covered in 1993 and a diagnostic genetic blood test was developed. The juvenile form of Huntington’s disease (JHD) is more progressive and virulent. JHD children represent about 5% of all HD cases and are di-agnosed with family history, a CAG of >60 re-peats and diagnosed before the age of 20. Symptoms include: uncontrolled movements called chorea, decline in scholastics, memory loss, psychiatric behaviors, seizures, dystonia, loss of balance and tremors to name a few. HELP 4 HD WEB-SUITE

Help4HD.orgHD and JHD individuals eventually lose their abil-ity to take care of their own needs and becomecompletely dependent on caregivers for every-thing. Care of HD individuals is extremely chal-lenging and requires many disciplines. Mortalitytypically ranges between 10- 20 years for HDand less for JHD’s, about 5-10 years after diag-nosis.

Help4JHD H4HDiRegister

Help4HD RadioFor more information...

Research4HD TheHuntingtonsPostContact us or donate

to:

Help 4 HD International423 West Ocean Ave.Lompoc, CA 93436

info@help4hd.org

Visit us on the web:www.Help4HD.org

Who is Help 4 HDInternational?

MissionHelp4HD’s mission is to educate the world about Huntington’s disease through its multime-dia communications platform, and to find the underserved HD families who are seeking infor-mation, education and resources. All HD fami-lies need help with the challenges that are thrown in their path; many find themselves in crisis situations. The goal is to discover the un-derserved areas and bring support and re-sources to those who need help.

Help 4 HD International Inc.was founded in 2010 by MelissaBiliardi when her son James wasdiagnosed with Huntington’s dis-ease. They reside in SantaMaria, California on the CentralCoast. Help4HD was incorpo-rated and tax exempt as a 501c3

Public Charity in 2013 and serves the Hunting-ton’s Disease (HD), and Juvenile Huntington’sDisease (JHD) community.

COMMITMENT TO SERVEAll of Help4HD’s amazing staff and volunteers have the same desire to help and serve. Each, have a strong connection to HD and JHD and understand the burdens that all HD families face.

Help4HD is a grassroots patient advocacyorganization which utilizes multimedia com-munications and social media to propel its edu-cation and advocacy mission. Help4HD events,conferences and support groups inform andinspire the Huntington’s disease community.

President, Katie Jackson, husband Michael and their amazing children. Mike was diagnosed in 2007. Their children have a 50/50 chance of inheriting the same fate.

Help4HD is committed to its caregiver support and education initiatives providing information about research and clinical trials, connecting credible care professionals with the community is top priority. Now with several Help4HD sup-port groups and chapters, what started out as aCalifornia Central Coast Association, has be-come a global community outreach and effort.

Family First!Help4HD Radio hosted by Katie Jackson goes

Live every week. Go to BlogTalkRadio.com/Help4HD for more information . More than 225 episodes also available on iTunes.com/Help4HD.

Help4HD is focused on helping HD families by bridging communications and partnering with institutions, industry, and professionals from every discipline. Help4HD’s philosophy is “Family First”. Nothing is more important than facilitating safe and healthy families and the way we do that is through education and sup-port services. Here is what one medical pro-fessional says about Help4HD:

Help4HD’s 100 Global Ambassadors are work-ing every day to bring advocacy and awarenessabout HD and JHD to the world. Please contactour founder, Melissa Biliardi if you would like tojoin our Ambassador team. We are eager to work with you!

Help4HD Support Groups are in Californiaand Florida. For more information, please visitww.help4hd.org and proceed to the support group tab for information and locations.

“Help 4 HD International has been able to reach a portion of the Huntington ’s community that no one else has” Dr. LaVonne Goodman, Seattle WA

Contact: Katie Jackson, Help4HD InternationalOffice: 916-698-0462Caring 4 HD Affordability Shop & Resource

Center: The aim is to provide low costhousehold items, clothing, and medical equip-ment for families in need. The Resource Centerwill provide information about community ser-vices, clinical trials, social services and caregiv-er resources available to our HD families aswell. Come and shop or donate your no longerwanted items. Plus It’s always fun to shop at theAffordability Shop! You never know what treas-ures you’ll find...

HELP4HD’s SUPER SIX(left)Katie JacksonPresident, Help4HD 1. Communications

2. Education3. Events & Conferences4. Fundraising Initiatives5. Patient Advocacy6. Support Services

(right)Katrina HamelVice President ofOperations, Help4HD

© 2015, Help 4 HD International Inc.