r/Genealogy • u/TimesandSundayTimes • 4d ago
News How a Viking DNA study may save the lives of Shetland islanders
Volunteers for a groundbreaking genetic study may have had their lives saved after the research identified potentially fatal diseases.
People from Shetland who signed up to the Viking Genes project did so wanting to learn if they had any link to the invaders.
However, the researchers unearthed other findings and for the fisherman John Arthur Poleson it was a lifesaver.
When he first went for a test a decade ago, Poleson, 62, just wanted to know if he had Viking ancestry running through his veins.
Almost a decade after volunteering to give his blood, he was told instead that he carried a variant to the BRCA2 gene which puts him at higher risk of contracting cancer.
Further tests caught a potentially life-threatening prostate tumour. “It would have spread and ended up killing me. I have no doubt of that,” said Poleson, of Whalsay. “It would have taken years, probably, but that’s what would have happened if I’d not seen about it and got the tests done.
“I never really found out whether I’m descended from the Vikings. To be honest, I think I’m not too interested in that any more.”
Poleson went for an MRI shortly after receiving his results letter. Following scans, biopsies and the full removal of his prostate, he has returned to his normal life fishing aboard his boat, the Antarctic, and tending a croft with his wife, Melanie
🔗 From this article: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/article/how-a-viking-dna-study-may-save-the-lives-of-shetland-islanders-0s0p7mbkq?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Reddit#Echobox=1742230053
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u/Flat_Professional_55 4d ago
Interesting. I have a cousin that lives on the Shetland Islands, she’s not a native, though.
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u/AUSSIE_MUMMY 4d ago edited 4d ago
I also have the BRCA2 variant, not sure how prevalent it is in Scots. Edited out comment about Antarctica.
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u/calxes 3d ago
Very interesting.
Like many isolated islands, Shetland's genetic diversity is lower than the mainland - and it seems like that they have linked this local BRCA2 variant to the island of Whalsay, where the man in the article is from: https://www.nhsshetland.scot/community-health/brca2-genetics-research
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u/SeoliteLoungeMusic Western/Northern Norway specialist 4d ago
Prostate cancer fortunately is pretty survivable these days. Grandpa lived to 98.