{"id":377983,"date":"2026-04-02T08:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T08:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/377983\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T08:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T08:42:08","slug":"jesy-nelson-celebrates-plans-for-rollout-of-sma-screenings-for-newborn-babies-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/377983\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesy Nelson celebrates plans for rollout of SMA screenings for newborn babies | UK News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jesy Nelson has spoken of her pride after it was announced screenings for spinal muscular atrophy will begin earlier than planned.<\/p>\n<p>The former Little Mix star has campaigned for all newborn babies to be screened for the rare condition after her twins, Ocean Jade and Story Monroe Nelson, were diagnosed.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/thank-god-for-my-mum-former-little-mix-singer-on-how-experts-missed-twins-rare-medical-condition-13500670\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">They were found to have the condition<\/a>, which causes progressive muscle wastage, which Nelson says means they will probably never walk, after being born prematurely last year.<\/p>\n<p>The 34-year-old launched a petition for more health checks for babies, appearing on Sky News to promote her campaign, <a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/little-mix-star-jesy-nelson-in-tears-after-hitting-target-for-spinal-muscular-atrophy-campaign-13507450\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">and it reached 100,000 signatures<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/524c3d089a3b47cd686cdca9763f194befed3efd08beb0e59182e3027c3f51fb_7149997.jpg\"  class=\"ui-video-player-poster-image\" alt=\"\" data-testid=\"video-player-poster-image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>    Share<\/p>\n<p>\n                    Struggle to diagnose &#8216;life or death&#8217; condition\n                <\/p>\n<p>Health Secretary Wes Streeting has now announced the checks will be rolled out as part of in-screening evaluations from this October, rather than January 2027.<\/p>\n<p>These are used to test proposed screening programmes before they are adopted nationally.<\/p>\n<p>In a letter to Nelson and Giles Lomax, the boss of the SMA UK charity, Mr Streeting said he was keen on a full rollout and promised to keep them updated.<\/p>\n<p>Nelson, a patron of the charity, celebrated the news in a post on Instagram.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am so proud, as this is a major milestone for the SMA community,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>More from Sky News:<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/video\/moment-rocket-takes-off-for-artemis-ii-mission-to-moon-13527043\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Watch historic moon launch<\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/video\/iran-war-trump-says-core-objectives-near-completion-13527064\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Trump says war aims &#8216;near completion&#8217;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>     <a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/download-app\" target=\"blank\" data-tracking-label=\"ui-app-promo-download-link\" class=\"ui-app-promo sdc-article-widget\" data-type=\"\" data-component-name=\"ui-app-promo\" data-testid=\"app-promo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Early treatment can help prevent some of the most devastating consequences of her twins&#8217; condition.<\/p>\n<p>They have had a one-off infusion that puts a missing gene back into their body to stop other muscles from dying, however, they will not be able to regain any muscles that have already died.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Lomax said his charity would continue to work towards a UK-wide rollout of SMA screening, adding: &#8220;No baby should be left behind based on where they live.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jesy Nelson has spoken of her pride after it was announced screenings for spinal muscular atrophy will begin&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-377983","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}