Mansfield mum turns around fortunes to become world-beating strong woman

These are the words of 38-year-old Claire Bramley, a power-lifter from Mansfield who turned her life around after weighing more than 18 stone and being given a stark warning by doctors about her future.

Claire decided to take to the gym and get in shape, taking up weightlifting before finishing runner-up in the WHEA World Championships Strongest Woman competition last year.

The Mansfield mum, who is now extremely fit after making the lifestyle change, feels other women should not be put off by weightlifting and the stigmas that come with it.

“I knew I had to make a change because I have to be there for my children”, she told the BBC.

“At that point I went home, looked into my children’s eyes and burst into tears.

“I was size 24, 18 stone-plus and I needed to change.”

Claire is now the world’s second strongest natural woman, after finishing second in the competition held in Finland in October 2019.

“I remember watching it as a kid, the men on TV pulling trucks and lifting atlas stones. I thought it was amazing”, she added.

“I watched it all the time and I was like: ‘I wanna give that a go’.

“Going out into a big arena in front of a lot of people, your legs are shaking and your mind’s all over the place, it’s nerves. It was amazing.”

However through her success, Claire has become the target of online trolls who give hateful opinions about women in weightlifting.

“’You look like a man’. ‘You shouldn’t be doing that’,” she described. “It does affect you sometimes. There’s not as many women, it’s not as popular.

“It goes down the whole road of ‘it’s going to make you bulky’, and it’s hard to overcome that.

“You should just give it a try. Even go for one session.

“I’d like to qualify next year, because I’d like to go out and see if I can better the second place.”