A brave woman fire-fighter has a double life as one of Britain’s top female bodybuilders.
Mother-of-one Sarah Hallett, 43, juggles a career in the emergency service with being the reigning Miss Bodybuilding Britain.
Sarah, who lives in Swansea, South Wales, with her daughter Tyler, 14, has been a fire-fighter for the past eight years and has been bodybuilding for the last six of them.
When she isn’t working at her day job Sarah is busy honing her physique, spending around 18 hours a week in the gym.
Despite working in baggy flame-proof overalls during the day, Sarah is confident donning a tiny bikini and displaying her body on stage.
Sarah tends to train with her male colleague, whose bicep size she easily matches.
She said: ‘I have a good laugh with all the lads at the fire station – we train together a lot and they really encourage me.
‘Being a firefighter really helps with my body building because my job is so physical.
‘I can train for up to three hours a day, six days a week, eating just protein and drinking five litres of water a day.
‘It takes a lot of discipline to do what I do – it’s like having two full-time jobs, but I love it so I don’t mind.’
‘I get incredibly mixed reactions from people when they see my body.
‘Some women are completely horrified, some are intimidated. They say: “Don’t you think you look like a man?” and “Do you really want to look like that?”
‘Well of course I do or I wouldn’t do it. The training is incredibly intense to get the results I want.’
Sarah got into body building after competing as a long-distance runner at the World Firefighter Games in 2007.
Sarah saw the winner of the woman’s bodybuilding competition and thought: ‘I’m in better shape than her’.
Since then Sarah has traveled round the country showing off her powerful figure and notching up successes in the world of bodybuilding.
She was crowned Miss Britain at the National Amateur Bodybuilders’ Association championships in May.
Now she is just one step from the top bodybuilding title in the world after finishing second at the Mr and Ms Universe competition in Southport, Merseyside.
Sarah, who wants to change the image of women’s bodybuilding, is furious at glamour model Jodie Marsh for giving the sport a bad image.
She says: ‘The trouble is women’s bodybuilding has been given a really bad name by the people like Jodie Marsh.
‘That girl is just after publicity – she’s not a good ambassador for the sport at all.
‘She said she didn’t win her last competition because she didn’t take steroids like the other girls.
‘I just want to say tell her to go and have another breast implant or silicon filler in your lips.
‘Of course my body is not perfect – I still have saggy bits of skin – but I want to inspire other women that all things are possible.’
Courtesy of: Daily Mail