Bank of Dave boss Dave Fishwick opens up on painful health battle that led to troubled childhood

Dave Fishwick, the real-life inspiration behind Bank of Dave, has opened up about his painful health battle that led to a troubled childhood.

After the roaring success of his initial film, Dave, 53, has been immortalised once more on Netflix with Bank of Dave 2: The Lone Ranger, starring himself alongside A-list stars known for box office hits such as James Bond and Deadpool.

While he's become a national sweetheart for tackling predatory lenders, it wasn't always smooth sailing for Dave. He revealed how an ingrown toenail as a kid had a devastating impact.

He told Daily Star: "I was bullied terribly because I was little. I was about four foot nothing and I'm not much bigger now.

"I had national health glasses on with a patch over my eye because I was bog eyed and had to have my lazy eye fix itself. Then one year it got really bad... I ended up with an ingrown toenail and it gets worse. My mum took me to the chiropodist.

"I went down there and they said 'I'm ever so sorry Christine your son is going to have to have that nail off'. So they took it off, it were excruciatingly painful and they said 'he is going to have to go to school with sandals on because he can't put any pressure or put his shoes back on'."

Dave's rocky start in life saw him battling bullies and adversity, as he recounted: "So there I was, in winter, with sandals on with national health glasses on with patch over one eye and four foot tall. Imagine what that was like. It was a tough old childhood let me tell you.

"Even though I was being punched still, it didn't hurt the same because I had been punched a million times and I learned to fight back against the bullies and I have never been bullied since and I think that was a really good lesson from my years in school being knocked about."

His tough upbringing, however, didn't dampen his spirits. He continued: "I wouldn't wish it on anybody but for me it made me a more rounded person. I always thought the outside of the classroom window looked a lot more interesting than the inside and that's why I have absolutely no qualifications whatsoever."

Despite having the odds stacked against him, hard graft led Dave from construction sites to entrepreneurial success.

He first managed to earn a fortune through selling minibuses and then started Burnley Savings and Loans following the 2008 financial crash.

Now, his larger-than-life story has landed on Netflix with Bond actor Rory Kinnear depicting his struggles and victories.

The sequel, out today (January 10), showcases Dave taking on payday loan sharks in what he calls a "pinch me moment" as he appears in the film himself as an Italian-American mobster.