A PONTYPOOL man has finished fourth in a natural bodybuilding contest after losing five stone in a year.

Clint Trayhern, 44, from Pantygasseg, had been motivated to get into shape after his son, Emyr, seven, suffered a stroke in May, 2013.

Taking up boxing and hill walking, and training up to twice a day at the gym, Mr Trayhern also made big changes in his diet and has taken to eating raw chillies, garlic and 12 eggs a day.

Doing up to 1,000 sit ups every morning, the removal worker’s ultimate goal was to compete at the BNBF Welsh Championships at the Dolman Theatre in Newport on June 2820.

Having never taken part in such an event before, Mr Trayhern finished an admirable fourth in the heavyweight division after impressing judges with his 49in chest, 17in arms and 33in waist. He raised £365 for Hope GB, a local autism charity, in the process.

He said: “I’ve always been interested in natural bodybuilding since the age of 12 or 13. I just decided to go for it six months ago and I couldn’t back out.

“I had never done the gravy brown tanning before and was very nervous doing the posing. But, I got through it.

“I was very happy with the result and hope to do it again.”