Season 4: Episode 50- Rachel Broderick “Young Onset Dementia: Facing a Family History”

In this episode of our Young Onset Dementia series, guest host Kathy Hickman of the brainXchange and Alzheimer Society of Ontario sits down with her niece Rachel Broderick of Owen Sound, Ontario, whose Mother and Grandmother both developed and died in their 40s of a rare form of Alzheimer’s Disease. (Familial) caused by a genetic mutation. Rachel, along with her brother (both teens at the time), cared
for her Mom, Chantal, who was a single mother. The story of how she bravely faced this experience during her formative years and how it influenced the now 21-year-old woman she has become is truly inspiring. Rachel candidly shares with Kathy why she had made the difficult decision to have genetic testing done to find out whether she has the same genetic mutation and will develop Young Onset Dementia as her Mother and her Mother before she did.
 

Resources

• Genetic Testing and Alzheimer’s Disease - https://alzheimer.ca/en/about-dementia/what-alzheimers-disease/genetic-testing-alzheimers-disease 
• A Few Facts about Genetic Testing and Young Onset Dementia - https://alzheimer.ca/en/about-dementia/other-types-dementia/young-onset-dementia/genetics 
• What Teens Need to Know if a Parent has Young Onset Dementia -https://alzheimer.ca/en/about-dementia/other-types-dementia/young-onset-dementia/teens 
• Young Caregivers Association - https://youngcaregivers.ca/about/
• Young Carers Project, Research Institute for Aging, University of Waterloo - https://the-ria.ca/resources/young-carers-project/ 
• Alzheimer Society of Canada, Young Onset Dementia - https://alzheimer.ca/en/about-dementia/other-types-dementia/young-onset-dementia
• brainXchange, Young Onset Dementia Resource Page - https://brainxchange.ca/Public/Resource-Centre-Topics-A-to-Z/Young-Onset-Dementia