AN East Lancashire singing sensation has received an unconditional offer to train as an opera singer from five of the country’s top music academies.

Grace O’Malley has being offered prestigious scholarships at Manchester, Cardiff, at the Royal Scotland College of Music in Glasgow or at the Guildhall or Royal College of Music in London.

The 17-year-old Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School pupil is to give her final major performance for the foreseeable future when she headlines Rosemere Cancer Foundation’s Valentine’s Appeal Candlelight Concert in Blackburn Cathedral next month.

She will step out of the limelight to concentrate on studying for her A Level exams which she sits this summer.

Grace's mum Maureen O’Malley said: “We understand what Grace has achieved at her age in terms of being offered these places is quite unprecedented.

"Grace’s voice is already quite mature and it’s now up to her to choose whether she studies in Manchester, Cardiff, at the Royal Scotland College of Music in Glasgow or at the Guildhall or Royal College of Music in London."

And making her final performance all the more poignant will be a duet with another longstanding fan, 89-year-old Chelsea pensioner Dennis Shiels, who is travelling up from London especially to sing wartime hit “I’ll be Seeing You” with Grace.

Mr Shiels and Grace recorded the song together for a CD to raise funds for the Royal Hospital, Chelsea.

Since the age of eight, Grace has given concerts and recorded a total of five CDs to raise money not only for the Royal Hospital but also, Pendleside Hospice, Petal, another local charity that raises funds for research into childhood cancers, the Royal British Legion, of which Grace is an honorary member, and for Rotary Club causes.

In all, her singing has raised more £150,000.

When she appears at Blackburn Cathedral for Rosemere on Thursday, February 11, it will be the second year in succession that Grace has headlined the charity’s Valentine’s Appeal Candlelight Concert.

All money from the concert, will go to the 2016 Valentine’s Appeal.

Call 01772 522913 to pre-order Candlelight Concert tickets, which range in price from £5 to £25 with the most expensive tickets inclusive of entry to a pre-show drinks and canapes reception.

At the concert, Grace will be supported by the Preston Cecilian Choral Society and Lancaster’s Ripley St Thomas Academy Jazz Band. Soprano Grace is also planning to duet with tenor James Holt, of Stockport, a fellow student of Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music, where Grace also studies.