My name is Therese Crutcher-Marin and I’m a Huntington’s disease (HD) advocate, a blogger, author and currently serve as Chair for the Huntington’s Disease Society of America (HDSA) San Francisco Bay Area Affiliate.   

                      Thank you for visiting my website!   

I’m a retired healthcare professional having spent the last ten (10) years of my career in Hospice, a local community program that provides end-of-life care to the residents in Placer County, CA.  I was lead into hospice work, I believe, by a higher power, to learn from those dying since I would be traveling with my three (3) sisters-in-law on each of their Huntington’s disease journey over 24 years.

Lora, Marcia and Cindy, inherited the mutated huntingtin gene, which causes Huntington’s disease (HD), from their mother Phyllis Iva (Cahoon) Marin.  She inherited it from her father, Charles Cahoon, and he inherited from his father, Wilber Cahoon.  HD is a rare, fatal, genetic brain disorder that has all they symptoms of ALS, Parkinson’s and Alzheimers at the same time.  

When one parent has the disease, each child has a 50/50 chance of inheriting the mutated gene.  I call Huntington’s Disease The Cruelest Disease on the Planet because it affects families for generations.  And, there is NO CURE.

Fortunately, John, my husband, genetically tested anonymously at the HDSA Center of Excellence at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento and his test was negative.  We are forever grateful for this gift to our children.

We Can Never Lose HOPE……….