I must win BGT – to save my spine
After wowing TV show judges, teenage dancer Julia now pins hopes on £250k prize to fund pioneering scoliosis surgery in US
ONLY moments before Julia Carlile took to the stage to audition for the hit TV show Britain’s Got Talent, she decided to pull off the loosefitting sequined T-shirt she had planned to wear – and bounded on to the stage in a colourful Lycra two-piece that matched those worn by the four other girls in her dance group, Just Us.
‘I wanted people to see me,’ admits the 15-year-old. ‘I used to buy clothes that covered my body. But to be honest I don’t care what people think now.’
As anyone who watched Julia’s audition will know, she suffers from scoliosis, an abnormal curvature of the spine, a fact the 5ft teenager immediately revealed to judges Simon Cowell, Alesha Dixon, Amanda Holden and David Walliams – and the ten millionstrong television audience.
It was hard not to be won over by her upbeat confidence.
It was, she said, her ‘last chance’ to show the world what she could do. Soon, Julia, whose condition is worsening and causing her increasing pain and disability, will need surgery to correct the deformity.
Undaunted, she gave the performance of a lifetime, complete with acrobatic backflips and splits – moves that she admits can be ‘absolute agony’.
It was impossible to miss the emotion in her face as she performed a thrilling and emotional routine set to the No1 hit Fight Song with her sister Alice, 17, and friends Annie, also 17, Becky, 16, and Poppy, 15. Their performance received a standing ovation. Dixon was so deeply moved that she hit the golden buzzer – a judging device that instantly leapfrogs an act from the heats into the semifinals. Cowell himself has said he expects to see them go all the way.
The group, who have changed their name to MerseyGirls, will appear on the show again in the live semi-finals which begin on Monday, May 29.
BUT as the enormity of their achievement sinks in, Julia is contemplating an uncertain future. The teenager has pinned her hopes on an experimental operation called verbal body tethering (VBT), which she believes will correct her spinal curve and allow her to move more freely.
The surgery is not available on the NHS, or in the UK, while it is being studied – and costs about £70,000. It means Julia is now desperate to win the competition as she hopes to pay the medical bill in the US with her share of the £250,000 top prize.
She has been offered spinal fusion surgery on the NHS. This would involve metal rods being inserted to fuse vertebrae and straighten the spine.
It’s the operation that fellow sufferer Princess Eugenie, now 27, had in 2001, when she was 12.
The procedure is effective but would mean that Julia’s back would be too rigid for her to perform any gymnastic moves.
The difference with VBT is that titanium screws are placed on the outside of the vertebrae and a white flexible cord is attached to each.
When the cord is tightened, it compresses the adjacent screws to help straighten the spine, but leaves it able to move and bend.
It’s still a trial procedure – and NHS scoliosis expert Lee Breakwell, of Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, warned: ‘It is brand new technology and there are risks involved, as with all surgery. More research is needed.
‘This procedure does allow more movement. But there is a risk that if a patient is very active, then the implant will break, requiring more surgery. It is also not designed for very severe curves. Fusion works specifically because it stops movement.’ However, Julia, who lives in the Wirral with her sister and parents Kate, 39, an administrator, and Chris, 42, a nurse, is hoping that the operation will enable her to dance for ever.
Typically those with scoliosis – which is usually first seen in childhood – will not need treatment if the condition is mild.
Babies and children may be offered a supportive back brace that stops the spinal curve from worsening as they grow. Julia wears one almost constantly, except when she dances.
In severe cases, the curve can stunt growth and even lead to
pressure being put on the internal organs, including the lungs, and that is what is happening to Julia.
She says: ‘I’m now finding it very hard to breathe. Until now, spinal fusion surgery has been the only option but after that, I really wouldn’t be able to dance again and do back flips. The VBT operation will mean I can continue to move and bend. I am scared but ultimately if I do have it, then I can dance for ever.’
Like all scoliosis sufferers, Julia has a visibly curved spine and uneven shoulders. One hip sticks out and she struggles to find clothes that fit. Performing dance moves is, understandably, tough.
She says: ‘Because I have a really bad curve, my ribs have started to rub on my pelvis on the right side of my body, and it gets hard to do kicks with my right leg. I also find that when I put my head down, it aches at the top of my neck.’
She was diagnosed with scoliosis when she was five. As with eight in ten cases, there was no known cause. Julia says: ‘When I was really young, I went to the doctor’s with a bad cough and as I was bending over so they could check my back, they could see I had a curved spine. ‘Some people say you can get it if your parents have had it, but there was no one in my family who has. ‘I remember feeling really scared. But right from the start, my mum encouraged me to do normal activities, even if I was in pain, and to do things that any other normal kid would do. But by the time I was eight, my curve had become so large that I had a hump on one side and I was given a plastic back brace to wear, which made me feel very self-conscious.’ Scoliosis sufferers usually have to wear their brace for up to 24 hours a day. Julia has worn one for the past eight years. ‘I wear it all day and all night and I take it off for a few hours a day. When I dance, I don’t wear it and that makes me feel so liberated. I should wear it when I go on Britain’s Got Talent but I get too embarrassed so I leave it at home.’ Julia, who has been dancing since she was two, has to have check-ups at least once a month to measure her progress. She admits: ‘I have felt really self-conscious dancing over the years because you can’t really miss the hump on my back, and when I go shopping I try to find clothes to hide it.’
Scoliosis patients are advised to exercise regularly in order to keep the muscles strong and improve their posture as much as possible. Julia admits that she is in pain as soon as she wakes up every morning.
She says: ‘Doctors say it’s good that I dance because it makes the spine more flexible and keeps me supple.
‘When I keep moving, I am in less pain but when I wake up in the morning, I am in so much agony. I can’t walk around or stand up for too long because it starts to hurt.’
APPEARING on BGT has given Julia a renewed confidence. ‘I have watched Britain’s Got Talent all of my life and have always dreamed of being on it and now we have got this far,’ she says. ‘But away from the stage, I am in so much pain that I feel ready now to have surgery.
‘There has been so much other support and I have received tweets from people telling me that I have helped their daughter go to school, and that has meant the world to me and inspired me.
‘Simon Cowell said to me, “I think you are the kind of person who has got determination regardless of what happens.”
‘He also said he would see us in the finals. If Simon thinks I can do it, then I can.’