After years of deliberating, Liv decided to start the process of genetic testing at Birmingham Women’s Hospital in January 2024, in the hope of finding out if she had inherited the same gene that caused her mum’s dementia.
After an eight-month process from the initial conversation, confirmation came from a simple blood test which took about five minutes, she said.
“I’ve always assumed that I had the gene, that it would happen to me… I don’t know why, it was just a gut feeling,” Liv, of Hall Green, added.
On 2 August that year, she found out she had tested positive for the faulty microtubule associated protein tau (MAPT) gene.
“Me and my partner Ani went in, and before I’d even sat down on the chair, she [the geneticist] just said ‘I’m really sorry, it’s not the result we wanted’.”
Liv added the confirmation was “hard to describe” but it “wasn’t really a shock”.