“I cannot actually put into words how grateful I am that this moment has just happened right here! And it is all thanks to you guys,” she said in a post to her 9.7 million followers on Instagram.
“This is the first hurdle but we bloody did it and I truly believe that together we are going to make change!”
In a video shared, external in January, Nelson revealed her daughters had been diagnosed with the condition which meant that they would “probably never walk.”
She told her followers the twins had not been showing as much movement in their legs as they should have been, and they were struggling to feed properly.
“After the most gruelling three, four months, and endless appointments, the girls have now been diagnosed with a severe muscular disease called SMA type 1,” she said.
Speaking to ITV’s This Morning a few days after she made the announcement, Nelson said that she felt “selfish to keep this to myself and not potentially save a child’s life,” saying that she had a “duty of care” to raise awareness for the condition.
Last month she also met Health Secretary Wes Streeting to speak about the life-changing impact early detection could have had on her twins.
SMA is a progressive muscle-wasting disease that can cause death within two years if untreated.
The NHS says it can affect sitting up, crawling and walking, as well as problems with breathing or swallowing.
SMA occurs in an estimated one in 10,000 births, according to the NHS. SMA type 1, the condition Nelson’s twins were born with, accounts for around 60% of all cases of SMA. , external
In 2021, a life-changing gene therapy drug called Zolgensma was approved by the NHS to treat babies with the disease.
According to SMA UK, the drug delivers a healthy copy of the affected gene to the body, but timing is critical because irreversible damage may have already occurred in the nervous system.
At present, screening for SMA is only carried out on those who have a sibling with the condition.
Nelson’s petition aims to get SMA screening added to the newborn blood screening test, which is also known as the heel prick test. SMA UK also wants it added.
The NHS says this a test which is offered to every baby at five days old to check for 10 serious but rare health conditions.
Nelson, 34, gave birth to her twins prematurely at 31 weeks, having previously revealed she had experienced rare complications during the pregnancy.
In an Instagram post in October, she said she had “never felt prouder” of her body following the birth of her girls, adding that becoming a mother made her “realise how incredible my body actually is”.
Nelson left Little Mix in December 2020, and has since released music as a solo artist, including the single Boyz featuring Nicki Minaj in 2021.