Monica Cook shares remarkable story of beating cancer to break power lifting world record two years later

A Perth woman has beaten the odds to achieve an incredible power lifting world record, lifting nearly 150 per cent of her own body weight.

Monica Cook, 60, set the world record for a woman aged between 55-59 with an incredible 97.5kg bench press despite weighing only 67.5kg.

The record was set in at the National Championships in South Australia in 2023 and the world record certification was finally delivered to her just before Christmas by the World Powerlifting Congress.

The moment was one of pure joy for the lifter.

“When I got it, I was on cloud nine, it was the happiest, or second happiest, day of my life,” she said.

“It took me a while to come down from that one, about a week.”

It has not been all smooth sailing for Ms Cook however as she was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2020.

She underwent brutal chemotherapy and had to use a stomach bag for six-months which caused her to lose more than 13kg over the treatment period.

Ms Cook returned to power lifting in 2021 and has been cancer free since, but says she still feels slightly weaker than before.

“It gave me a goal to get back, to get healthy again,” she said.

“I said I wanted to just get back on the platform, not lift heavy weights but just to be there.

“They gave me a goal, and that set me up.”

Ms Cook trains three times a week at the Muscle Pit gym which she describes as a “second home”.

“The gym family and the power lifting community has been excellent in their support,” she said.

“They come up and congratulate you, even people that you don’t know will come up and give you a hug and congratulate you and when I’m training the support from the Muscle Pit is tremendous, they come in and help and I need it, so it’s excellent.”