WHEN her twin sister went into labour Amanda Boyce felt every contraction and sensation involved in giving birth.
But she wasn’t even at the hospital at the time and did not know her nephew had been born until a relative telephoned to tell her.
This shared feeling of pain is quite common for the mum-of-two who explains she knew from an early age she was different from other people.
Her close bond with twin sister Natasha Lunniss is just a small part of the sisters’ strong spiritual beliefs and, in Amanda’s case, abilities.
A self-proclaimed healer, psychic and medium, Amanda says she believes everyone is born with these same abilities but it is about learning how to access them.
“I remember being a baby, lying in the cot, and obviously most people’s earliest memories would go back to around three or four.
“I could sense things around me far more than other children and then when I was four my grandad died and I felt as if I had been part of the whole process of his going.
“Then when I was nine I was looking at myself in the mirror and for just a few seconds my face changed into my grandad’s face as I looked into it.
“It frightened me at the time because I was only a child and I felt I was different.
“I also became absolutely terrified of death to the point I couldn’t listen to songs talking about it or drive by a graveyard without being hysterical,” she adds.
She admits this lead to her feeling quite isolated but her relationship with twin Natasha remained strong.
“We understood each other and although she does not overtly use her psychic abilities she does have them.
“And while she does not feel my pain, as I do hers, she is tuned into my moods and feelings and will call me because she has sensed something is wrong without even speaking to me,” she says.
As adults the sisters took different paths, Amanda working as a singer, and Natasha a hair stylist.
But Amanda was still very aware of her psychic abilities and three years ago Amanda decided to train as a reiki healer and created a healing centre upstairs in the Colchester salon her sister had been running since 2006, appropriately named Angels.
She says the catalyst for her decision to train as a healer and use her special gifts was the death of their sister-in-law, Mandy Lunniss, in 2012.
“She had breast cancer and when she passed away it was my first experience of an end of life, I passed her soul over.
“I was with her and she kept asking me for lip balm, to keep me there, and then I just felt an ice cold breeze under my hand which was over her solar plexus and then I knew her soul had gone.
“She and her mum are now actually two of my guides who bring me messages for other people. 
“They appear in dreams to me, often when I get messages it is in my thoughts, I don’t see them with my eyes, I see them in my mind which is called being clairscentient,” says Amanda, who is also clairvoyant meaning she can see things that are going to happen.
And she realises there are many people who are sceptical - but she meets them head on.
“I don’t mind, in fact I love it because I can explain it to them and I can show them that it works.
“When I do medium readings I never know anything about them, I am completely honest and open and I only ever know their first name.
“I only ever see someone once every six months - any more than that it can get too much. You hit a brick wall and there is no more information to come through,” she says.
The twins, who are 40, also strongly believe in angels, explaining there are hundreds around us at any one time.
Amanda gives angel readings and explains she is guided by the archangel Raphael.
“I use the readings to help show people how to use angels in their lives.”
Her work has become popular in the past two years purely by word of mouth but in particular the use of spiritual healing as an alternative therapy has proved a major draw in recent months.
After hearing about the young daughter of her husband’s work colleague, who was suffering from severe asthma, Amanda offered to help with spiritual healing.
She explains she uses angels in her healing.
“With this healing it is not just me that feels it.
“They do too. This little girl had been using steroids and could not sleep properly at night because of her asthma.
“I had my hand on her chest and it was like something was pushing my hand, a force, and I had never had that before and after just one session she went home and slept all night and since then has had no bad attacks.
“I know people think I am mad but I know it works. 
“My younger daugher Harley had meningitis as a baby and doctors thought she would die and some friends sent her an angel.
“I fell asleep and when I woke up a few hours later she had begun to recover. I know people will say, well she was in hospital but even the doctors said it was miracle,” she says.
Both Amanda’s daughters, aged 12 and six, show psychic abilities already, and give angel readings themselves.
“Jovi, my older daughter used to play in the room next door and I could hear her laughing with other children and I asked her who she was with and she said ‘auntie Nat Nat’s babies of course’ like I should have known.
“But she meant the twin babies Natasha had sadly miscarried, when I was actually pregnant with Jovi herself.
“We had never told her and so she had no way of knowing but she somehow did and she also knew they would have been born on December 13,” she adds.
After helping with the daughter of her husband’s colleague, word spread and Amanda’s services were in high demand.
She is currently putting together a healing programme for a youth empowerment scheme to be run in schools and has already worked with year 6 pupils at Langenhoe Primary School, offering meditation and healing in a bid to help relax youngsters in the face of SATs exams.
“All the children were calm and focused, there were no meltdowns and the school sent a letter saying how pleased they were so my vision is to encourage this more in schools.”
The twins also hope to write a book about their amazing lives.
“We have had a lot of life experiences too and I think that helps in our line of 
work.
“I believe in past lives, and I do consultations about this too, and I believe it can explain a lot about us now.
“Our fears are often from previous lives for example although some people have not had any past lives and they are often the ones with no fear at all.”