Former Little Mix singer, Jesy Nelson, has posted an emotional video addressing the latest update with her twin girls.
The 34 – year old welcomed her two girls, Ocean Jade and Story Monroe Nelson – Foster, in May of last year with her fiancé Zion Foster, after they were born prematurely.
In the video she posted, she revealed how the girls had been recently diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy type 1 (SMA1).
Nelson spoke about the devastating news and how she was told they probably never going to be able to walk and how ”they probably will never regain their neck strength, so they will be disabled, and so the best thing we can do right now is to get them treatment, and then just hope for the best.”
She went on to speak about how the diagnosis came about, how it was a ‘gruelling” four months of hospital appointments, and how it was her mother who initially noticed the twins ”were not showing as much movements in their legs as they should be”. Nelson also mentioned how they later struggled with the twins feeding but because of the twins being born prematurely they were told they were likely to be behind other babies, and was told by doctors not to worry.
Other signs Nelson found were floppiness, the inability to hold themselves up without support and rapid breathing in the tummy. “If anyone is watching this video and they think they see these signs in their child, then please, please take your child to the doctor, to the hospital, because time is of the essence, and your child will need treatment. And the quicker you get this, the better their life will be”
She added how the girls have had their treatment, and how grateful she feels as if they don’t have the treatment, they will die.
“The reason I wanted to make this video was because the last few months has honestly been the most heartbreaking time of my life”
“I literally feel like my whole life has done a 360, I almost feel like I’m grieving a life that I thought I was going to have with my children, and I’ll have to be grateful because at the end of the day, they’re still here, and that’s the main thing, and they’ve had their treatment.
“And I truly believe that my girls will fight all the odds and, with the right help, they will fight this and go on to do things that have never been done.”
SMA1 is the most severe yet the most common of the disorder, and it causes muscle weakness as well as a progressive loss of movement over time. According to the NHS, around 70 children are born with SMA each year in the UK and without treatment, 8% of those babies will survive to the age of two.
Since the singer had posted her heartbreaking yet informative video, many others who have experienced the same heartbreak have spoken out on the importance of looking out for those signs or anything that doesn’t seem right, as it could save a child’s life.
Nelson had publicly spoken previously about her complications throughout her pregnancy and had also shared how she underwent an emergency procedure during this time, where she spent ten weeks in hospital prior to giving birth at 31 weeks.
