PETITE Sue Shuttleworth is driving to the top in a man's world.

Three years ago she was a non-starter behind the wheel but now she is driving Land Rovers, four-tonners and vehicles carrying explosives, gases, petrol and flammable liquids.

And it's all happened since she joined the Territorial Army three years ago.

She passed her test just as she joined the Fourth Queen's Lancashire Regiment (4QLR) at Kimberley Barracks in Deepdale. Now the TA have her motoring at high speed through thick forest in the dark - without lights!

Now, Sue, 32, has gone on to win the trophy for Best Driver of the Year in 4QLR and was then chosen for Exercise Medicine Man, a two-week assignment driving scientists round the British army base Batus in Canada.

The factory worker, the only woman in the Military Transport section of 4QLR, said: "It's the first time the award has gone to a woman. I am very proud."

Ironically, Sue works on military transport in her civilian job at the Volex factory in Leigh.

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