BGT dancer thanks Cowell for life-changing surgery
A Britain's Got Talent contestant has thanked Simon Cowell for paying for her life-changing surgery, after she was told by doctors that she may never be able to dance again.
Julia Carlisle, who appeared on this year's series with the Mersey Girls, suffered from scoliosis – abnormal curvature of the spine – but Cowell generously paid the £175,000 needed so the 15-year-old could fly to the US for surgery.
Now that's lovely.
Speaking from Los Angeles, where she's recovering, Julia said on This Morning: "Thank you so, so much. I have no words to thank him. What he's done for me is just the best thing ever."
Simon approached the group – made up of Julia's friends along with her older sister Alice – following their last performance on the talent show.
"He just said backstage, 'It's true, it is gonna happen'," Julia recalled. "I was just in tears – happy tears."
The other five members of the Mersey Girls joined Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford in the studio to talk about Julia's recovery – and even future dancing plans.
Julia admitted that her recovery hasn't been easy, saying: "It is one of the hardest thing I've ever done but yesterday was a breakthrough. I just decided I'm gonna get better now as I want to dance.
"If it hadn't happened, by now I would have had the fusion, I would be at home recovering slower than I am now, and probably be a mess knowing I wouldn't be able to dance again."
She had to travel to New Jersey for the procedure called vertebral body tethering, which involves screws being fixed along a cord inside the back.
The recovery time is usually six weeks and the operation can be reversed if it fails, but it's not currently available on the NHS.
If she underwent surgery in the UK, any operation might leave her unable to dance again.
But now Julia can look forward to hitting the dancefloor again and smiled: "I'm already practicing dance moves two weeks after my op – I'm hoping to be dancing in three months' time."
Incredible!
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