Jesy Nelsons SMA Testing Debate Hits Parliament!

has celebrated a major milestone as she announced Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) will now be debated in Parliament.

The singer, 34, revealed in January her now one-year-old twins, Ocean and Story,  had been diagnosed with SMA Type 1, a rare muscle-wasting condition.

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.

The singer has campaigned tirelessly for the NHS to expand its screening to check for spinal muscular atrophy following her own experience with her daughters. 

On Friday, Jesy shared the news that the has confirmed that the petition to add SMA to newborn screening in England will now be debated in Parliament on 22 June.

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

Last month, Jesy shared her joy as the NHS announced they would roll out 'heel prick' testing on newborns for SMA.

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

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 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 daughters' devastating prognosis they may not live beyond the age of two, Jesy in March 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".'