A 42-year-old dental nurse has signed up for a gruelling 10-day trek through the Amazon rainforest. Sharon Theobald will be joining 41 others to raise funds for the National Deaf Children's Society during a fortnight of walking and canoeing.

"I have got mixed feelings about this one, but it should be amazing," said Sharon, who works at the Dental Centre in Tenterden High Street.

It will be the third charity trip that Sharon has done. Four years ago she cycled along the Great Wall in China, just four months after a major operation. Two years later, she was in India riding from the Himalayas to Delhi. Each journey was nearly 500km.

"The cycling was the easy part - it was the transfers which were daunting," said Sharon, who lives in High Street, Tenterden "But when you're trying to get up a really steep mountain, you often wonder what on earth you're doing. When you finish though, it is amazing."

Sharon says she saw both extreme poverty and sites of incredible natural beauty in India, but seeing abandoned girls in China was heartbreaking. "In India, we went to a unit for handicapped children, and there was leprosy out there. These kids would not have stood a chance without this unit.

"I have got two healthy children myself and have a pretty nice life, so this is putting something back, no matter how small."

Sharon doesn't expect to see much poverty in the Amazon, just a different way of life. She has already been warned about possible cockroaches in the accommodation, which is nothing more than huts in the forest.

She will be joined on this trip by her partner Greg. "I would like to thank all the patients at the Dental Centre for all their advice and support," she added.