A BAKER has quickly risen in her new quest to become an elite bodybuilder after being challenged by her fiancée.

Cassie Miller only took up the sport 13 weeks ago but she has just finished second in a national competition.

Ms Miller, 22, from Willington in County Durham, started after being challenged by her fiancée Craig Tough.

She said: “I used to go to the gym to watch him lift weights.

“One day he said to me ‘you’re entering a competition’ and that was that.

“I just wanted to enter, I never expected to finish second.”

Ms Miller, a baker at the town’s Co-op store, followed a strict diet cutting out all salt and sugar and trained for fours a day to bulk up and tone her physique.

She came second in figure class at the Ardler Classic sponsored by Extreme Nutrition in Dundee.

Ms Miller said: “I was so nervous before hand I felt quite ill, but as soon as I came off stage I wanted to do it again.”

She has trained at Complete Fitness in Willington with owner Graham Rand, himself a former champion bodybuilder.

Ms Miller is now preparing for future competitions.