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My son started having seizures when he was a toddler, and as part of that he was put in a genetic study for the type of epilepsy he has. It was a blind study, but I knew that I was going to want to know if he had the gene.

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So, my husband and I thought to get our genes sequenced, and it came back that I had the gene for haemochromatosis.

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My brother, Cormac, and my sister have it, so of five of us, three had haemochromatosis. We found out pretty young and weren’t experiencing symptoms; we probably wouldn’t have known for years. 

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The biggest thing that would concern me is arthritis. If I keep giving blood, I’ll be well, but I could get arthritis pretty early. When you’re active, you know the kind of toll that would take. 

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We're a good example of catching it young, starting treatment, and not waiting until it’s taken an irreversible toll on your body.

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