In just over a fortnight lifecoach Amanda Evans, 48, will start an epic 100km trek across the desert with the aim of raising more than £3,000 for Help For Heroes, the charity working towards helping soldiers wounded in action.

After having lost a child Amanda is acutely aware of how precious life is and while knowing there is nothing she can do to keep her soldier son, Edwin Evans, safe while he is serving in a war zone this challenge is her way of trying to help.

"It always gets me because you don't know what's happening. They are trained to be out there, they know what's happening and we just get the low points," Amanda said.

Amanda's son Edwin Evans, 25, has been serving with the Army Air Corps since 2004 while her eldest son, Ben Evans, 28, has undertaken a six month tour of duty in Bosnia with the TA.

While admitting "it's just something you have to put up with" Amanda said she could not bear to lose another child after her son Jacob died aged 16 weeks.

"It was one of the reasons I got into the work I'm doing. There's always something that propels someone and for a lot of people it's something catastrophic in their lives," she said.

Jacob was born with the rare condition biliary artresia, meaning he did not have any bile ducts in his liver, and doctors had hoped to carry out a liver transplant if he had lived to the age of one.

"When you know that something has happened to you, you don't want it to happen again," Amanda said.

Despite having already done a 13,000ft skydive with the Red Devils in July to raise more than £700 for the charity Amanda almost immediately started looking for a tougher challenge.

"Falling out of a plane was easy, doing an overseas challenge was the next best thing. It was either the Sahara or Mount Kilimanjaro and I don't like the cold so I'm going to where the sand is but unfortunately no sea," she said.

The adventurous mum has been sticking to a rigorous training regime which includes walking her dog every morning at 5.40am for 40 minutes, followed by one hour on the treadmill, a 40 minutes weights and abs work out and a further two hours of dog walking in the afternoon.

While looking forward to meeting like minded people Amanda is dreading the prospect of camping.

"I'm looking forward to doing it because I have never done anything like this before. I'm looking forward to meeting different people that are doing the same sort of thing and people I would never normally come across," she said.

"It's the every day things like washing that I'm going to miss, you have wetwipes and they say we may get a shower," she added.

Anyone who would like to support Amanda's Sahara Trek challenge can donate by going to www.justgiving.com /amandaroseevans.