A retired hospital worker has set the highest recorded cycling mileage for a woman in the UK after clocking up more than 600,000 miles by the end of December 2009.

Sue Swetman, 61, from Epsom Common, by her own admission “is not very good at sitting down” and has kept a diary of all 609,721 miles she has clocked up since taking up cycling as a 13-year-old in Kingston.

One of only three women in cycling’s 300,000-mile club, Mrs Swetman has crossed England many times, cycling from Lands End to John O’Groats, around New Zealand, France and 800 miles down the west coast of America.

She said: “When I was younger we [her and husband Pete, 72, who himself has recorded 397,338 miles cycling] would be able to go on holiday and rack up 1,000 miles in a fortnight. These days we struggle to reach 10,000 miles in a year, but we don’t do it to reach a target mileage.”

But Mrs Swetman was still able to cycle 10,669 miles in 2009.

Unlike many of the other members of the 300,000-mile club Mrs Swetman’s 609,721 miles have been covered mainly on local pleasure rides, rather than long distance endurance races or long-term projects.

She said: “The cycling is just part of my way of life. It is something I started doing with my family at a young age and something I still do, and happen to still really enjoy.”

After joining Kingston’s Festival Road Cycling Club as a schoolgirl Mrs Swetman tried most forms of cycling during her 49-year cycling career – even representing Great Britain as track-cyclist on a tour to the former East Germany.

However, Mr and Mrs Swetman prefer to take walking holidays these days and have already walked in Switzerland, Spain and the Cotswold Way, and are planning a trip to conquer Ben Nevis later this year.