One of my favourite quotes is from is from Audrey Hepburn:

“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says I’m possible”

This changed my mindset from one of can’t to can. A simple change that opens up a whole new world of possibilities.

In 2007 a colleague and I who worked for Scottish Huntington’s Association spoke at HD World Congress about the importance of supporting and educating young people about HD in an age and stage appropriate way. To say that there was resistance from the whole community is a bit of an understatement, the majority believed it was wrong and impossible. Ten years on the complete opposite is believed; it is possible and it is the right thing to do.

Today our impossible dream of treatments and a cure for HD is no longer impossible, but one we can all be involved in reaching. I am currently at Huntington’s Study Group Conference in Denver, Colorado, listening and being inspired by the hundreds of people whose main goal is to help families impacted by HD. Tomorrow we welcome families to the conference and this, for me, is what makes the HD community possible. The journey towards effective and efficient treatments and a cure is the partnerships and collaboration that happens within our little world-wide community. We all need to work together, we are all important and we are all dreaming the same dream. We all have a role and we are all need but we are never alone.

Each and every one of us, no matter our connection to HD has a role to play, you just need to figure out what that role is. Whether it’s taking part in research, to sharing your story on social media, to handing out flyers about support groups to lobbying governments these roles played by families are vital to achieving the impossible. HDYO started as an idea that Matt told you about in our last blog but look what that impossible idea has become. Today HDYO is a global organization that reaches 2000 people a week. Our content is available in 14 different languages, we organize youth camps in North American, Australia and New Zealand and Europe, we have a dedicated youth service in US, we provide training and support to professionals working with families and we run an online support service via our website. We do all this with a staff team of 3 and a tiny budget but we manage this with a dedicated team of volunteers and supporters. Someone would say what we have done is impossible but together we all believed in the I’M POSSIBLE.

SO the next time someone tells you it’s impossible remember what Audrey Hepburn says “NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE, THE WORD ITSELF SAYS I’M POSSIBLE. If you need some proof of this you should check out some of the amazing things people did for #challengeweek.

If you would like to find out more about how to get involved get in touch at info@hdyo.org

Cat