Jesy Nelsons SMA Campaign Hits Major Milestone!

celebrated a 'major milestone' in her campaign for the NHS to roll out 'heel prick' testing on newborn babies for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a rare muscle-wasting condition. 

The singer, 34, revealed in January her now nine-month-old twins, Ocean and Story,  had been diagnosed with SMA Type 1. 

The late diagnosis means her daughters are likely to never be able to walk and have specialist equipment to help them breathe at night as well as feeding tubes. 

Despite the UK's National Screening Committee rejecting calls to introduce checks for another muscular disease in January, on Wednesday  announced plans for more than 400,000 babies to be screened for the condition from October 2026.

The news comes following tireless calls demanding the health secretary to overrule the committee's guidance and make effective treatment more accessible on the NHS.

Celebrating the news, Jesy took to her Instagram and wrote: 'A big step forward for SMA, ISE have announced to start screening for SMA in England will now begin in October 2026. I am so proud as this is a major milestone for the SMA community'. 

The singer has campaigned tirelessly for the NHS to expand its screening to check for spinal muscular atrophy.

The pilot will see an estimated 400,000 babies tested in England. 

The  currently carries out 'heel prick' tests on babies at around five-days-old to check for just 10 treatable conditions, including cystic fibrosis. 

In a letter addressed to the singer and Giles Lomax, chief executive of SMA UK, Streeting said: 'At our meeting I committed to seeing whether the in-service evaluation of SMA screening could be implemented faster and cover a wider geographical areas. 

'I am pleased to confirm that [screening] will now start in October this year rather than January 2025 as previously planned.' 

Despite her nine-month-old daughters' devastating prognosis they may not live beyond the age of two, Jesy last month explained that despite the tragic news, she has decided to keep filming her Prime Video series as she fights to 'make a change'. 

In a Q&A, she said: 'I just hope people continue to watch the next part of the journey. When the girls got their diagnosis, we decided that we wanted to continue filming.

'As hard as it was, we were like, "You know what? There's a reason you guys are here, and we've got to make the best out of this situation".'