The test uses a sample of blood taken in a heel prick shortly after birth.<\/p>\n
Nelson said: “After years of campaigning, it means so much.<\/p>\n
“Today is a day of hope. Knowing that future families will have access to early diagnosis and the opportunity for the best possible outcomes is something I’m incredibly proud to have supported.<\/p>\n
“This is a victory for every family affected by SMA. Whilst it can’t change the future of our children, I know it marks the beginning of a brighter future for future SMA families.”<\/p>\n
Hundreds of thousands of babies are expected to be screened for SMA as part of the study, which will be led by scientists at the University of Oxford.<\/p>\n
That will help the UK National Screening Committee make a final decision on whether SMA testing should become a permanent fixture.<\/p>\n
James Murray, the health secretary, said he was “in awe” of campaigners who had worked to raise awareness of SMA. <\/p>\n
“No parent should have to watch their child lose the ability to move or breathe, knowing that earlier treatment could have made all the difference,” Murray said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The test uses a sample of blood taken in a heel prick shortly after birth. Nelson said: “After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-552391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552391","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=552391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}