“I’d like to play as long as I can.”
Those are the hope-filled words of Minnesota Wild forward, Jake Dowell, who in his future, could be facing a potentially fatal disease.
Dowell’s father suffers from Huntington’s Disease — a genetic disorder that kills brain cells and attacks motor skills. Any child of a parent with the disease has about a 50 percent chance to inherit HD.
On ESPN’s award-winning documentary series E:60, Dowell explained that he doesn’t want to get tested to find out if he has the disease.
“It’s just such a scary thing that you have to just absolutely be ready to accept your fate either way,” Dowell said on the show, as recounted by the Pioneer Press. “It’s basically the flip of a coin.”
The full episode will air Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. CT. ESPN posted a pair of clips from the show on YouTube.
