Strongman's car lift challenge

Mark Anglesey lifted a Metro

A Britain's Strongest Man competitor answered a challenge to lift up the back end of a car - by doing it 580 times in one hour.

Mark Anglesey, 31, from Rotherham, completed his Herculean task to raise £1,200 for the local hospital's baby unit.

The strongman was responding to a bet from a family member who told him he would struggle to lift the Mini Metro parked in his drive even once.

But he proved him wrong and claimed the world car lifting record by raising the 450lb weight 12 to 18 inches off the ground once every 6.2 seconds.

Although he completed the challenge in October 1998, Mr Anglesey is back in the spotlight after emerging as the only man from South Yorkshire named in the latest edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.

He told BBC News Online: "I was actually competing in Britain's Strongest Man and it was one of my family that bet me I couldn't pick the back end of a car up.

Mr Anglesey says it was his father-in-law, Colin Hope, who suggested aiming for a world record and turning the challenge into a charity event for Rotherham District General Hospital.

He added: "A friend had just had a baby that wasn't very well and we were thinking of starting a family so it seemed like a good charity to raise money for.

"I had the competition in July, had a couple of weeks off, then started training for the record attempt for about eight or nine weeks.

"I just had an old car parked on my drive at home - everyone thought I was a nutter on the street because they saw me lifting it up and down all day."