The ultimate project aim is to become the first part of Scotland to be genetically screened as part of a preventative healthcare campaign.<\/p>\n
The screening would identify individuals with a heightened genetic risk of diseases including breast, ovarian and prostate cancer, and heart rhythm disorder.<\/p>\n
It is hoped it will become available to those over 16 and will be aimed at identifying residents at risk before symptoms develop.<\/p>\n
It would allow preventative treatment to be sought, with the ultimate aim being to save lives.<\/p>\n
Prof Jim Wilson of the University of Edinburgh has been leading the BRCA gene variant research.<\/p>\n
He hopes that funding bodies will take note of the strength of feeling now shown by the Shetland communities unanimously backing screening.<\/p>\n
![\"Prof](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/b8677691405f3be44bddf4cd2806c09a.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Prof Jim Wilson has been leading the research [BBC]<\/p>\n
“I’m delighted at the unanimous support from across Shetland, which shows the strong commitment to getting the community screening project going,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Shetlanders are now aware that they are at higher risk of disease and are pressing for a bespoke approach to reduce this health inequality through preventative genetic screening.<\/p>\n
“This will save lives and save the NHS money in the long term – a great benefit to the community.”<\/p>\n
Shetland MSP Beatrice Wishart said she was “encouraged” by the project.<\/p>\n
“We already know that there are genetic predispositions within the Shetland community,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Screening will have long term value with future generations benefiting from preventative action and medicine.”<\/p>\n
The project also has the support of NHS Shetland.<\/p>\n
Health board chairman Gary Robinson describing the prospects as “really exciting” with a “phenomenal” potential for early detection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every community in Shetland has backed calls for an islands-wide project to screen for a faulty gene which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,1050,176475,58703,84,176474,176476,176477,176473],"class_list":["post-421113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-community","tag-faulty-gene","tag-genetic-screening","tag-health","tag-jim-wilson","tag-screening-project","tag-shetland","tag-viking-genes-shetland-community-screening-project"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}