A 41-year-old woman admits she felt ‘like a ticking time bomb’ after learning she was a carrier of the deadly Huntington’s disease.

Need to know

• A woman who carries the gene mutation for Huntington’s disease says she feels like a “ticking time bomb”.

• The rare disease affects a person’s ability to walk and think, as well as their mental health

• “I cried more than I thought I would. I couldn’t stop,” Sara Power recalled of the moment she learned of her diagnosis.

A woman has admitted she felt like a “ticking time bomb” after learning she had a gene mutation for Huntington’s disease.

Sarah Power accompanied her mother to a doctor’s visit years ago, when she tested positive for a rare disease.

Huntington’s disease, according to the Mayo Clinic, causes nerve cells in the brain to degenerate, affecting a person’s ability to move and think, as well as affect their mental health.

Symptoms usually appear when a person is in their 30s or 40s. Power was 23 years old when he was diagnosed.

“I was torn apart,” Powers, now 41, recalls Metro. “I’m pre-symptomatic, but it feels like I’m a ticking time bomb. It’s forced me to live my life differently, though, knowing that I’m going to get sick at some point.”

Added strength: “I don’t take anything for granted, and I’m grateful for what I have today. I try to live my life the best I can, and I’m still here.”

Huntington’s disease runs in Power’s father’s family. Both his father and grandmother had it.

“I vividly remember sitting in our living room when I was five years old, and someone from the Huntington’s Disease Association told me that my grandmother had this disease,” Powers said. “They were explaining that it was hereditary, which didn’t mean a huge amount to me at the time, but I felt this darkness in the room.”

“My grandmother was a smoker, and I remember that I would never smoke so I wouldn’t get Huntington’s,” she added.

When Power’s grandfather died, his cause of death was listed as Huntington’s. His father — whom Power described as a “proud man” who denied he had Huntington’s — died of the disease in 2017 at the age of 63.

It wasn’t until Power turned 18 that he was asked to attend an appointment for genetic counseling related to Huntington’s disease.

“They knew my dad had it, and they were just telling me without telling me,” she said. Metro.

“I cried more than I thought I would. I couldn’t stop,” Powers added about receiving her official diagnosis years later. “The world was still spinning, but it was like it stopped for a while. It was very difficult, to tell many of my friends on the phone. I couldn’t talk, I was shattered. I felt numb.”

After Power received her diagnosis, her friends tried to take her mind off the news by taking her backpacking.

“It was the best thing I could have done. We saved as much money as we could, and then just went to Brazil, Bora Bora, New Zealand and Thailand – making as many memories as possible,” she said.

In September 2025, Power received a surprising email from the Huntington’s Disease Association about a new treatment.

The organization’s chief executive, Keith Stanley, said Metro “Preliminary results” of that new treatment “may slow the progression of the condition by up to 75%.”

However, she also explained that in its current form, the treatment would require a lengthy surgery “for more than 12 hours.”

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Despite the illness, Power now feels optimistic about the future. “I never let myself think about what my grandchildren would be like or whether I would need a pension,” she said. Metro. “This is the success we’ve all been hoping and praying for.”

“Now, I can be an old lady and be able to enjoy all the things my mom has,” Powers added.

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Power told GB News the potential treatment option for Huntington’s disease is “the most exciting idea”.

“I keep pinching myself,” he added.

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