From overweight banker to Commonwealth Games runner

British marathon runner Steve Way has a truly inspiring story.

He was once an overweight man approaching his 40s and stuck in an unhealthy lifestyle, full of takeway meals and cigarettes.

But the 40-year-old has been selected to run in the marathon for England at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in July.

Way shot to fame when he entered the 2014 London Marathon and finished third among the British competitors, behind Mo Farah and Chris Thompson.

His time of 2.16.27 made him eligible for selection for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Way trained incredibly hard to gain selection, running more than 200km a week while working as a banker.

Perhaps the most incredible aspect of his journey is not the weight lost, but the fact he had almost no experience in athletics and will now compete on the world stage.

"I am a one-man band: a self-coached club runner," Way told The Guardian.

"At school I was the guy who hid in the bushes with my fat mate during the first lap of the cross country and then rejoined the field when they came round again.

"I have never competed in a major championship before and until recently I had almost no contact with British Athletics. And now I will be running at the Commonwealth Games."

Way said representing England was once a "pipe dream".

"When I started my running "career"... my only aim was to get fitter and thinner and feel better about myself," he wrote on his blog.

"The concept of representing my country in a major games has only really been a pipe-dream so for it to happen now just as I officially turn into a over-40 veteran [three weeks before the race] makes it all the more sweeter!"

Way's dramatic transformation started seven years ago when he began waking up from coughing fits due to smoking.

"Towards the end of 2007 I could hardly sleep at night. I was coughing and waking up because of the smoking and it was impacting on my wife too," he said.

"At that point half our meals were takeaways and I would eat chocolate and sweets all the time.

"I was 16 1/2 stone (more than 100kg) and realised I had to do something radically different to break the cycle."