She may be a champion lumberjill (that’s a female lumberjack) but Shana Martin has a bigger battle on her hands: raising awareness about Huntington’s disease, the devastating genetic disorder that afflicts her mother, Debby.

At the 2009 Lumberjack World Championships last weekend, Martin finished first in the women's boom run, in which competitors sprint back and forth across a chain of floating logs – the latest title for the 29-year-old lumber-sports competitor, personal trainer, gym manager and fitness model. Amid all those pursuits, Martin is also the president of the Huntington’s Disease Society of America chapter in her home state of Wisconsin, campaigning tirelessly and helping to raise money for research.

Those who have the Huntington’s gene face the steady degeneration of neurons in the brain, usually beginning in middle age, which leads to uncontrolled movements, loss of intellectual facilities and emotional disturbance, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Treatments are scarce, and a cure remains elusive.

Debby Martin was diagnosed with Huntington’s when her daughter was a child, Shana Martin says. Though she was well enough while the girl was growing up to attend her active daughter’s athletic competitions, she hasn’t left her nursing home since 2004. Shana Martin and her father, George, visit her every week, Shana says.

“In my mind, from my personal experiences, this disease is the most horrendous thing that can happen to a family,” Martin told ESPNOutdoors.com in May.

Martin is open about the fact that, as the daughter of a Huntington’s sufferer, she has a 50% chance of contracting the disease herself.

“This is a scary thing, but I have known about this for most of my life,” Martin writes on her Web site, www.shanamartin.com. “There is a test available, but I haven’t had the guts to take it yet. I’m sure I will before I start a family, though.”

“I love my mom very much, and I would give anything to have grown up with her not being sick,” Martin continues. “Now I just pray that she is still enjoying life, and I also pray for a cure.”

For now, Martin appears focused on staying fit and maintaining her place in the upper eschelons of lumber sports.

“Being physically strong and physically active – that’s basically my way of coping,” Martin told ESPN in 2000. “Some people have denial, some people really look at the research. ... If I had a hard day taking care of my mom, I went into practice and everything was gone.”