Prof Jim Wilson, who leads a Viking DNA project that has discovered hotspots of rare disorders in Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles, said that money could prove vital in identifying people who need life-saving treatments.
The proposal has been flagged by Torcuil Crichton, the Labour MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar (the Western Isles), after Wilson’s project found a “shockingly high” incidence of a rare blood disorder called haemochromatosis in the region.
New windfarms and other green energy projects across rural and island Scotland are expected to generate tens of millions of pounds in “community benefit funding”, where a portion of the profits are shared with local people.
Wilson said using those funds for mass screening, targeted at illnesses that heavily affect island populations, would be far more socially useful and cost-effective.
Wilson’s project, a collaboration with scientists at the universities of Edinburgh and Aberdeen, has identified clusters of rare breast and ovarian cancers in Shetland and Orkney involving the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.
