AN INSPIRATIONAL woman has swapped professional wrestling for a career fighting crime, despite being told she would never walk unaided as a child.

Recently qualified PC Amy Banks, who was bullied during her childhood, battles Moebius Syndrome – a rare condition which affects muscles that control facial expression.

The 26-year-old missed key development milestones as a child, and walked using a frame, but has turned her life around with Essex Police.

She’s been determined not to let anything hold her back, and signed up to a wrestling school aged 14, before getting inside the ring in Los Angeles four years later.

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However, PC Banks has now joined the community policing team in Southend.

Amy missed key development milestones as a child and walked using a frame.

She said: “I had a lot of hospital visits during my infancy and I couldn’t smile until I was four.

“I had walking frames and doctors told my parents I wouldn’t be able to walk on my own, unaided.

“My mum always tells me that was very hard to hear.

“I was diagnosed with Moebius Syndrome when I was ten.

“It affects the part of the brain that controls balance and coordination, which I always struggled with at primary school.

“It was hard because I was trying to do everything all the other kids were doing but I couldn’t do anything for as long.

“I had a lot of support, hospital visits and physio, and I started walking before primary school, but I got tired very quickly.”

By the age of 15, Amy was appearing in professional wrestling shows and she progressed to performing in front of audiences of up to 1,000 people by the age of 20.

Amy worked with children at the Megacentre in Rayleigh alongside her wrestling career and then branched out into mixed martial arts.

In 2016 she even ran the London Marathon for Children with Cancer UK.

Miss Banks said: “I went from not being able to run around a school field to being in the wrestling ring with people coming to watch me.

“It was such fun, and when I was 18, I got to wrestle in Los Angeles.

“I’ve wanted to join the police since I was five but I thought I wouldn’t be accepted. But as time went on, I began to think again.

“All the equality messages I saw on social media helped. There are so many different types of people who work for the police now, so I applied again in January 2020.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do.

“Now I’m actually here, the message I want to get out to everyone else who struggles to believe in themselves is that you can do anything you want if you set your mind to it.”

PC Banks was awarded the prestigious Kirste Snellgrove Award for being an exceptional trainee on the 18-week initial training course.

Amy is now spreading the message about the importance of self-belief and looking after your mental health and recently gave an online talk to students at USP College in south Essex.

She added: “There are no limitations, it’s about adaptations.

“Believe in yourself, work hard and seek help along the way.

“I explained about the difficulties I had growing up, how I didn’t let that stop me and how I hope they don’t let any difficulties they come up against stop them from achieving what they want.”