A YORK teenager is hoping for a pain-free Christmas now that her tonsils have been removed - after 11 years of waiting.

Gemma Newell, 18, of Embleton Drive, Rawcliffe, York, has suffered repeatedly from tonsillitis since she was seven. She said she has had the illness about 50 times but claimed specialists kept putting off an operation to have the tonsils removed, saying she would grow out of it.

A former pupil of Canon Lee School, Gemma missed large chunks of her education and, during her GCSEs, she developed quinsy, a serious infection of the tonsils, which can lead to blood poisoning.

Now she works for Superbreak, a telephone hotel booking service, and has had to take frequent spells off work since her job involves talking on the telephone for hours each day.

"I've had lots of time off and work are getting sick of it. My tonsils are inflamed all the time, but every time I go to the doctors they just give me penicillin and send me away," Gemma said.

But on Friday, her waiting finally came to an end and she had the tonsils removed at York Hospital.

Beforehand, she said: "I wish they'd taken them out when I was seven. I have to take two weeks off work unpaid to recover from the operation."

She said she could not wait for life without tonsillitis as the illness has left her in pain and at times hardly able to speak.

"I have had tonsillitis every Christmas since I was seven so this year will be my first Christmas without it," she said.

Gemma added that she could not understand why it had taken so long to end her misery.

"I bet there's lots of people out there in the same situation," she said.

A spokeswoman for York Hospital NHS Trust said: "We cannot comment on Gemma's individual circumstances due to patient confidentiality.

"Our priority is to make sure patients receive appropriate treatment at the right time at every stage of their care. Patients' best interests are at the forefront of everything we do."

Updated: 10:48 Monday, November 17, 2003