Executive coach Sue Stockdale finished runner-up in Channel 4’s Superhuman at the weekend.

The show, broadcast on 17 April featured TV’s toughest scientific tests devised by leading academics to find Britain’s most extraordinary man and woman.

Sue, who runs Mission Possible in Oxfordshire, is no stranger to pushing herself to the limits, in 1996 she became the first British woman to walk to the Magnetic North Pole.

The contestants, selected from over 2,000 applicants, were drawn from a huge range of backgrounds and all represented excellence in their chosen fields.

Sue said “I really enjoyed taking part in this programme to not only test my own capabilities but to inspire others to take on new challenges.”

The teamwork shown between the female competitors paid off when they scored higher than most of the men in the sleep control test. This involved competitors staying awake for 48 hours before undergoing 6 hours of tests switching between 30 minutes sleep, and 30 minutes of testing.

Sue said: “When we (the women) were trying to stay awake, we worked together by giving ourselves an activity to carry out every hour such as drawing, eating, singing and exercising.

"If anyone looked tired, the others tried to grab their attention and keep them focused. By contrast, when the men were put together for 48 hours, they were very competitive, ate separately, and did not help one another. When one of them fell asleep, nobody woke him up."

Alongside her work as a coach and motivational speaker, Sue is currently writing a book about successful UK female entrepreneurs.