A GRANDMOTHER afraid of driving big cars has got a new job - driving 75-tonne monster trucks.

Margaret Gray was bored with her former cleaning job and heard about a vacancy at the wheel of a mechanical giant.

Now the grandmother-of-ten, from Middlesbrough, is understood to have broken records by becoming Europe's only qualified female dumper truck driver.

She said: "It's brilliant! It was certainly a challenge, but it's the best job I've ever had."

The 50-year-old overcame her fear of big cars - having refused to drive the family's Volvo estate.

Daughter Donna, 29, said the job-swap came as a great surprise.

"We thought it was a joke at first as she will only drive small cars," she said.

"We have a Volvo estate but she will never drive it because she said it is just too big for her."

Mrs Gray is now at the wheel of a £200,000 75-tonne Caterpillar 771, which carries loads of 40 tonnes.

She said that at first she had serious doubts about taking the job on.

"At first it was horrible and frightening. I thought I might not be able to do it. But the training was brilliant," she said. "Now I love my job and look forward to coming to work."

She works for Brambles Industrial Services, carrying out heavy mechanical work at the Corus steelworks site on Teesside.

And her dramatic career-change has since become a family affair - as her husband, Charlie, has left his job as a scaffolder to become a dumper truck driver with his wife.