New Delhi, Nov. 5 -- Laura Sides has described how learning she had inherited a gene linked to a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's disease transformed her decisions about family, relationships and the years ahead.

Speaking to Dr Sian Williams for BBC Radio 4's Life Changing podcast, Sides recalled choosing to undergo genetic testing after watching her father develop the disease in his 40s. In the BBC's account of her experience, she is described as 43, approaching the age at which a specialist had predicted she might begin to decline.

Caring for her father before confronting her own risk

Sides described a close relationship with her father, a GP, and said she left university to care for him as his Alzheimer's symptoms worsened. She ...