A teenager with scoliosis trapped in a brace for eight years is in a race against time to raise £41,500 for her "last chance" spine-straightening surgery.

Dramatic x-ray photos of 19-year-old Oriana Situ-Chivers' spine reveal two 60° curves which make walking for more than ten minutes impossible.

The undergraduate is in so much pain she has been forced to leave university where she was studying to become an osteopath - in a bid to help others like her.

The talented musician has shunned traditional fusion surgery after her parents discovered a pioneering, less-invasive operation involving flexible cords and screws.

But the op isn’t currently available in the UK on the NHS - and she needs it before her spine fuses permanently in an s-shape.

Exhausted Oriana, from Paddock Wood, is planning to travel to Simmerath, Germany, for the op in September - but needs help to pay for it.

Brave Oriana said: "I’ve always been a quite active person but I’m no longer able to enjoy the sports and exercise that I have always enjoyed.

“Over the past year my condition has crippled me and has taken a toll on every aspect of my life. I can still do things but in very small and particular circumstances.

“I have to put a booster pillow behind my back which makes me look like a granny when I drive.

“I sleep with a pillow in between my legs to make my back as straight as possible. When I sit down I have to reposition myself every few minutes.

“Even going for a walk for ten minutes is hard-going. The more active I am, the more my back spasms and tires out.

“So at the moment I’m hardly moving and having to take a cocktail of painkillers to get my though the day.

"I have two 60° curves in my spine and need surgery to correct them so that I can get back to my life.

"To correct this I am going to have Anterior Scoliosis Correction surgery as it is the least invasive option for me.

"Unfortunately, ASC isn’t currently available in the UK - and won't be until it is too late for me."

Oriana's mum Mila Situ, 55, spotted the muscles in her back were uneven when she was three, and despite flagging to doctors she wasn't diagnosed until she was aged seven.

She was fitted with a €1,000 back brace, but had to travel to Barcelona for special fittings every few months.

Oriana would be covered in tight-fitting plaster for 45 minutes which was then cut off with huge scissors.

She added: "The back brace helped to didn’t make the back better but made sure things didn’t get any worse.

“It only took 45 minutes to make but when the plaster started to set it becomes really difficult to breathe. "

Oriana’s crippling condition means she had to drop out her degree at the European School of Osteopathy in Maidstone and also affects her mental health.

“It broke my heart having to walk away," she said.

Traditional scoliosis surgery, currently used in the UK, sees surgeons strip muscles from the spine and straighten it with metal rods.

But after doing research Oriana, her mum and dad Jonathan Chivers, 57, discovered a pioneering operation called anterior scoliosis correction (ASC).

The keyhole surgery sees surgeons make two slits on her side before attaching seven screws on her right vertebrae and five screws on the left.

A flexible cord is then attached to the outside of the curve which is then tightened to help straighten the spine.

The pioneering operation is currently limited to teenagers and young people and not available in the UK on the NHS.

Experts argue ASC allows for continued growth and mobility of the entire spine as well as additional straightening of the spine as the adolescent finishes growing.

“My 60° degree curves will be reduced to somewhere below 30° which will allow me better flexibility to go back and do the things I love," she said.

“Surgery offered by the UK would see my curves reduced even further to 10° but my back would be far more rigid.

“The thing I’m looking forward to most is playing the flute.

“You have to sit up quite straight while playing it and with my back deteriorating I’ve just had to give it up completely.

“I’m also hoping to return to university so I can continue following my dream career.

“Because I’m still quite young my spine is still flexible enough to be operated on but time is running out.

“In a couple of years’ time my spine will no longer have the flexibility for ASC to be performed.

To donate, visit Oriana's GoFundMe page.