Michelle, 41, who works at City of Glasgow College, only took up powerlifting three years ago to aid her recovery from a broken back. She suffered the injury six years ago after being involved in a horse-riding accident.

For 18 months, a fracture went undiagnosed, but a chiropractor subsequently identified the injury and Michelle started going to the gym in an effort to regain fitness.

Since discovering the sport Michelle has gone from strength to strength, and the targets she has set for this year are a far cry from what she was capable off at the start of her career.

She told SportScene: “At the moment I am training for the British Championship which is in April and from there we are looking to go on and do the Europeans in July and the Worlds in September.

“This is the early part of training but it is going really well.

“When I did my first competition I was awful, my weights were pathetic but I got such a buzz out of it, I absolutely loved it.

“When I started I used to look at some of the weights that girls who had been doing it for years were doing, girls with British records, and I thought how can you even put that on your back?

“The targets I’ve set myself this year, if the records stay as they are and I achieve them, it will give me a British record in squat and bench.” Despite powerlifting still being a relatively unknown sport to most, Michelle insists that more people are getting involved.

To compete at the level she is requires significant financial outlay to get to tournaments, but Brand’s passion is clear and she gives the impression that she will do everything in her power to reach the very top.

She said: “From a public point of view, a lot of people don’t know about powerlifting. Within the sporting world it is growing, we are constantly getting new people at all different ages into the sport.

“It can be difficult financially to get to the big events. I was very fortunate to receive funding from the council through the West Dunbartonshire talented sportsperson scheme, which helped a lot.

“We are completely unfunded so that money helped me get to the Europeans and the Worlds last year, I was very grateful for that.”