The Britain’s Got Talent head-honcho promised to donate the £78,000 bill for 15-year-old dancer Julia Carlile, who suffers from scoliosis and needs to travel to the US to correct a curve in her spine.
The teen fronts dance troupe MerseyGirls, who sailed though to the semi-finals after receiving Alesha Dixon’s golden buzzer.
MerseyGirls, previously named Just Us, are a five-piece – made up of Julia, her sister Alice, 17, Annie Winstanley, 17, Becky Jordan, 16, and Poppy Gerrard, 15 – then sealed the public vote on Thursday night to land a place in tonight’s final.
Should the girls win tonight’s Britain’s Got Talent final, Julia was hoping to spend a chunk of the £250,000 prize fund on her surgery.
However, speaking to The Sun, Simon Cowell has vowed to pay for the procedure which will save Julia’s dancing career, regardless of tonight’s outcome.
“There’s no way I would ever have Julia on this show and say, ‘It’s all about winning the £250,000.’ I couldn’t do that. You would do the same thing.
“You get letters, you get calls. You have to draw the line at a certain point, but I think if someone comes on this situation, to do nothing would be, well, I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror.”
He added: “You create a connection, and I think with us, in this particular case, I think there is something we can do.
“There’s no way I would ever say, ‘Right, you came second so it’s all over’.”
Tonight, MerseyGirls have a huge mountain to climb with comedian Daliso Chaponda emerging as a firm favourite to win the 11th series of Britain’s Got Talent with odds of just 9/4.
Pianist Tokio Myers is tipped at 5/2 for victory, with former long-term front runners the Missing People Choir left to settle for third place at 5/1.
Jessica Bridge of Ladbrokes said: “It’s safe to say punters will be laughing all the way to the bank if Daliso wins BGT this year.”
Britain’s Got Talent concludes tonight at 7.30pm on ITV.
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