Sunderland Personal Trainer Is Apprentice Candidate

7 October 2014, 06:23 | Updated: 7 October 2014, 07:32

A personal trainer from Sunderland will battle it out with 19 other candidates hoping to be Lord Sugar's Apprentice in the new series.

Katie Bulmer-Cooke from Ashbrooke  has won several awards for her work as a personal trainer.

She creates and markets her own work-out programmes and DVDs and has been a health and fitness expert for Argos.

She's also behind the popular 'Little Black Dress' franchise.

When describing herself for the show, she says she's 'honest, down-to-earth and energetic'.

She said:
"In business I'm like a little stealth bomber that flies under the radar and smashes the competition before they've even realised I'm here."

Katie will join a burlesque dancer, a hypnotherapist with her own matchmaking firm and a pub quiz boss in the show.

They are each hoping to impress Lord Sugar to win a £250,000 investment in their businesses.

The show will this year feature 20 contestants - four more than normal - but it will last the usual 12 weeks, which means more than one elimination on a number of shows.

Explaining the added pressures of having more contestants on the show this year, Lord Sugar warns them:
“On certain occasions I may decide to dispose of more than one candidate at a time. Be prepared.”

The series begins with a double bill next week with programmes on Tuesday and Wednesday.