An autistic ballerina has mirrored Billy Elliot after raising more than £100,000 to pay for her place at one of the UK’s most prestigious dance schools.
Constance Bailey, 13, who started dancing aged two, was offered a place at the £30,000-a-year Hammond School last January.
Single mum Laura Bailey, 45, could not afford the fees, but 3,500 strangers donated £105,169 so that she can study at the Chester centre.
Laura, from Leeds, West Yorks, said: “Constance has autism but is incredibly creative – as well as ballet she writes poetry and plays.
"But she does not fit into ‘ordinary school’, she needs vocational education.
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“She was terribly shy and lacking in confidence.
"Doing ballet and drama really brought her out of her shell and gave her a strong sense of purpose and a confidence to build on.”
Laura, a PA in the NHS, added: “I feel an enormous sense of pride, because despite all the odds being against us – she has still managed to achieve it through her own hard work and determination.
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“It will give her the opportunity to achieve her dream of being a professional ballet dancer.
“She has worked very hard for it.
"She has spent 11 years of her life working her socks off.
“She’s better at expressing herself through dancing than she is with words.
“Once she got her pointe shoes, she said that she felt like she could fly.”
In film Billy Elliot, released in 2000, a coal miner’s son wins a place at ballet school thanks to fundraising efforts from his family.
