The road to success for Rebecca Roberts hasn't been easy. In her seven-year career, the Welsh strongwoman has trained relentlessly to become the best in Wales, the UK and, in 2021, the world - but soon after the pinnacle of her success, she suffered an unimaginable loss.
Her partner - the "best friend" who showed her what she could achieve and helped her become a title-winning strongwoman - died several months after a heart failure diagnosis. "He basically saved my life," Rebecca told WalesOnline.
"When I met him, I was in an extremely bad place mentally. He gave me a new meaning to life and he made me feel like I could achieve things, turned my mentality around and made me a more confident person. When he passed away I was distraught; I'd not only lost my soulmate, I'd lost my coach, my partner, my best friend."
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Rebecca, born in Bangor in 1994, met her partner Paul Savage in 2016. Diagnosed with heart failure in March 2022, he died in December. Remarkably, Rebecca still managed to use his memory to drive her on.
"It was hard," she said, "but one thing he always told me was I could achieve good things, so I'm achieving those things in his honour. He was the reason I got into strongwoman, he told me he'd make me the world's strongest woman within five years and we did that - I won in 2021 in Florida."
So, 2023 began the year of intensive training to win a UK title in Paul's honour. "I usually train between two to three hours a day, four to five days a week," Rebecca said. "My coach Paul Smith actually won UK's Strongest Man at the weekend so he's very experienced in prepping people for competitions.
"It takes a lot of hard work," she admitted, "a lot of self-motivation. Since my partner passed away I've not missed a single gym session; it not only makes me stronger physically but mentally."
This relentless hard work was put to the test over the Bank Holiday weekend where Rebecca took on the Ultimate Strongman UK's Strongest Woman competition in Nottingham, aiming to retain her 2022 title. She'd won the last competition while Paul was in hospital, and was aiming to win it again in his memory.
After hours of tyre flipping, deadlifting and other mind-boggling feats of strength, she did it - won her title - and "cried in front of the crowd" immediately after.
"I had probably one of the most emotional interviews of my life afterwards," she shared. "I explained how much it meant to me, to carry on the legacy that we worked so hard to build up."
She added: "It was an incredible experience because it was the third time that the women have competed at UK's Strongest Woman alongside the men, in a big arena with them - a crowd of thousands of people and an incredible atmosphere."
Now, Rebecca's sights are set on Europe's Strongest Woman in August, another title she's defending - and World's Strongest Woman in December, a title she's hoping to regain after she had to pull out of 2022's competition with an injury following a world title in 2021.
Rebecca acknowledges there's "extra pressure... like a target on my head" when she's looking to retain a title, "because people are looking at me to beat." But, she said, "I think I perform really well under pressure... I can settle my nerves and just go out and have fun with it."
Among the titles, the heartbreak and the incredible return to, how does Rebecca find the inner strength to keep going? She remembers "there's always good times ahead." She said: "I've been through a lot but I've always hoped for better things, and better things have always come.
"I've got a tattoo on my arm that says this too shall pass, and I look at it every time I'm feeling down. There's always good times ahead really, although life at the minute might seem hard and might seem like there's no way out, no way you'll be happy again.
"Keep going, have hope, and there will always be good times ahead."
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