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A few weeks ago, a family friend told us that her husband had been diagnosed with dementia. She said, `I knew things weren’t right for a while, but we were on holiday in summer, and he started to become confused, he couldn’t even find the hotel room and just seemed lost.’ She was telling me this over the phone and I could feel her holding back her tears, there was a helplessness in her voice as she said softly, ‘this isn’t how I imagined our lives growing old.’ I struggled to comfort her thinking about my own life – it all seemed surreal, unfair and just very sad. So, I was moved to hear the news this week of a groundbreaking gene therapy that has given hope to another incurable disease – Huntington’s – An illness which runs through families, relentlessly kills brain cells and resembles a combination of dementia, Parkinson's and motor neurone disease. This new treatment is a type of gene therapy given during delicate brain surgery and trials show that it can slow the disease by 75% potentially giving patients decades of a better quality of life. Families once bracing for decline can now embrace hope. At a time when the significance of scientific research is being discredited by many, this moment reminds us of the importance of science. There may not be certainty or consensus in many areas, and yes, science can be politicized, even weaponised. But at its core science is about curiosity and the fundamental desire for progress. Despite challenges, setbacks and failures, advancements small or big can help restore human dignity and even rebuild futures that once seemed lost. I talked to my friend again last week – she spoke of her family’s support, how her children have been helping her and how she finds new meaning in her faith. She said, `it’s in God’s hands. I’m praying for strength and his mercy because we will all be tested in some way – isn’t that part of having faith?’ I thought of the Qur’anic verse, ` and when I am ill it is God who cures me’ and how hope wears many faces - the hope which comes though medical progress, scientific innovation and breakthroughs and the hope that simply helps us endure, helps us feel less alone when we are frightened, when life seems narrow and full of shadows. Hope isn’t a cure. But perhaps it’s the reason we seek one, the reason we fight, love, and believe even when for a while it seems that our world is falling apart.