Indiaplain, of course I don't mind - that's why I started the thread, it's here for anyone affected in any way 
My dad was diagnosed last August - we had no idea Huntington's was in our family. You can imagine the shock and fear that followed. He'd been what I'd describe as 'not quite right' for some years, with savage moods, terrible coordination, slurred speech, and awkward movements. He was due to see a neurologist that November (motor neurone disease and even vCJD were mooted), then fell off a ladder one day and cracked a rib, the paramedic who saw to him (he's 71 and quite fragile) noticed that he was lurching about and asked if he always walked like that. He was admitted to hospital and referred to the neurologist. She immediately suspected Huntington's, the blood test confirmed it a few weeks later.
My dad still doesn't seem to understand the full implication of the disease. He's convinced it's something he's 'caught', and is insistent that neither of his parents had it (we suspect it was his mother who may have had it, she had personality traits and physical mannerisms very like my dad's). He keeps telling me that I'm fine and will test negative. He made my life a misery when I was growing up, I had a lot of counselling to come to terms with his treatment of me, and all that seems to be negated now because it was very likely Huntington's talking. It's a very complex thing to deal with, emotionally - sufferers can be violent, paranoid, irrational and aggressive. It's hard to empathise, or indeed sympathise, when they're like this and I completely understand the struggles that carers have.
I'm near the end of the counselling process that precedes testing. I changed my mind a hundred times a day in the months leading up to the counselling; I didn't want to know, to begin with. I wished that my dad had never been diagnosed. I wanted to bury my head in the sand completely, and try to carry on with life. Yet in the past few weeks, I've gone from that to knowing I should - and absolutely want - to be tested.
It's hard to explain the shift in thought, but as I have my DH and 2 young DC (the actual test will be carried out the day after DS1's fifth birthday, unfortunately), I have to be able to plan for the future in a rational way. If the test is positive, which I'm preparing myself for, then I need to put things in place whilst I'm still healthy and free of symptoms. I need time for the family to adjust to our new reality. I want DH to be able to access counselling, to prepare him for the inevitable. I also want to be able to participate in clinical drug trials - there are several happening as we speak.
I'm under the care of Addenbrooke's hospital, and their dedicated Huntington's research unit is excellent. I know I'm in good hands, and that's taken some of the terror away. Not all of it, but enough to help me live through testing without breaking down.
The truly saddening thing is that even if I test negative, I still have to watch my dad die in one of the cruellest ways possible. I completely empathise with your friend - so few people know the reality of Huntington's, the brutality and the sadness of it. It's a very lonely place. Is she in touch with the Huntington's Disease Association? They can send someone out to her house (and her mum's) to talk through everything and offer practical advice on living with the disease, both as a carer and as a sufferer. They're very kind and have been a massive help to my parents.
