BGT STAR JULIA BACK AFTER

Performing on Britain’s Got Talent in front of 12 million people, Julia Carlile was convinced it would be the last time she would dance. The schoolgirl’s lungs were being crushed by her spine as the scoliosis she had battled since birth made every move agony.

Viewers heard how the only operation available on the NHS would leave Julia unable to dance afterwards, making it was one of the most emotional moments in the show’s history.

While she and the Merseygirls did not win after reaching the final of the show, Julia went back home to The Wirral, Merseyside, with something more valuable – a promise from Simon Cowell that he would pay £175,000 for two operations in the US.

And now, three months after her last surgery, Julia is back in dance class with her friends.

Speaking for the first time since she returned to training, Julia, 15, says: “Dancing again, surrounded by my friends, is the best feeling in the world.

“I was desperate to perform again, but when I got to class I was really nervous.

“I didn’t know how my body would cope and I was scared of hurting myself.

“But when I went in everyone walked up and hugged me. I was so pleased to be back. It was overwhelming.”

Julia is practising as often as possible with the Merseygirls, and in just four months will be performing in a new live show alongside BGT legends, including Paul Potts and Susan Boyle.

It is a bright future she once could never have imagined.

Julia , who lives with mum Kate, 39, an admin worker, and sister Alice, 17, was born with a curved spine, known as scoliosis, which got steadily worse and would have ended her dancing career if left untreated.

Fusion surgery available on the NHS meant having a rod in her back, which would have left her too stiff to dance.

Her only hope was to go to the US for surgery to screw a cord to her spine, straightening it while allowing her the flexibility to dance.

Julia, Alice and the rest of the Merseygirls, Poppy

Gerrard, 15, Annie Winstanley, 17, and

Rebecca Jordan, 16, entered BGT hoping to win the £250,000 to pay for the operations.

They reached the final

w do mo allowed

Julia doctor month

She trying n I don’t you’ve yoursel should

Julia fundin when h

She change

GENEROUS Simon on Britain’s Got Talent PAIN Scoliosis twisted spine Julia in hospital in the US, where she had two ops Merseygirls get through BGT Golden Buzzer round Back in class and working with Merseygirls troupe