A BRAVE firefighter and mum-of-two has been left paralysed after a horrific accident at the gym. 

Victoria Griffiths is an on-call firefighter at Birchwood Fire Station who said she 'loves' her job and has championed women’s roles in the emergency services.

But the 31-year-old is now facing the biggest challenge of her life after breaking her back while using the squat rack at her gym.

The accident happened on March 17 at around 9.30am while Victoria, who is an experienced weightlifter, was lifting 130kg.

She said: “I was stepping up on to the step which wasn’t very high. I went to step back down and slightly wobbled. Instead of going backwards I went forwards. And the bars went down my neck, hit my head and rolled off.

“Spinning had just started next door and I was meant to be going in that class instead. But for whatever reason I decided I would do legs.

"I’m trying not to sit and think I wish I would have gone there. There’s no point thinking like that I can’t change it now."

Victoria wanted to thank Laura Bristow, who was training at the gym and ran to her aid whilst they waited for paramedics to arrive.

After being taken to Aintree Hospital, Victoria was taken immediately to the operating theatre for a four-hour procedure to put titanium rods in her spine.

Tragically, a broken bone in the middle of her spinal cord has left her paralysed from the waist down.

And Victoria is now in rehab in Southport unable to return home to her sons, three-year-old Noah and 10-year-old Luke, until her home has been made accessible.

She said: “I’ve been quite lucky given that the bar hit my neck and I haven’t damaged further up as well and lost the use of my upper body.

Ideally I would like for it not to have happened but you have to be positive. 

“I have two children, I have got to stay positive for them and keep trying to push through.

“I want to get home and get back to being a mum and a partner, until I work out what I’m going to do.

“I am devastated. I love my job as a firefighter, I wanted to get into work all the time. Recently I have been working on recruiting more females into the service.”

Victoria’s family have begun fundraising for the thousands of pounds worth of changes that will need to be made to the new home she had been hoping to move into with her partner, Dave Parr, where they were planning to build a life together.

The former Cardinal Newman High student said: “There’s going to be a lot of work that we need to do. The kids’ rooms will need to be widened so I can go in and tuck my three-year-old son into bed and read stories and help him get dressed.

“My boys have been absolutely fantastic. The little one just wants to sit on my lap in the wheelchair and makes me go faster and up and down the corridors. And we race Luke. They are great, I think kids see past everything. 

“Dave has stuck by me, he’s here every day. He’s amazing, he’s been fantastic and I couldn’t wish for a better partner.”

Click here to visit the fundraising page.