THE mum of young soldier Matthew Hatfield from Wiltshire, who died when a tank exploded during a training exercise, is to take part in a ten mile run to raise money for the Royal British Legion.

Fran Chandler, 52, will be joined by her daughter Samantha Hatfield, 24, and their partners for the Great South Run in Portsmouth on October 22. Corporal Hatfield, 27, who served with the Royal Tank Regiment based in Tidworth, died in June following the explosion at Castlemartin in Pembrokeshire, Wales in June. Another soldier also died and two were seriously injured.

Cpl Hatfield, who grew up in Everleigh and is a former pupil of Pewsey Vale School, knew he wanted to be a soldier from the moment he became an army cadet in Marlborough and signed up as soon as he left school aged 16.

His mum said: "We are doing this to keep Matthew's memory alive. He was a huge supporter of the Royal British Legion and I know he would be pleased that we are doing this.

"He used to encourage me to keep fit and I try and keep his advice in my mind when I am training. I am still finding it very hard to realise he is no longer with us."

On Sunday she took part in the Westbury 10K but hurt her knee at the 8k mark. She managed to finish the run but has now been told to rest for a week.

She said: "I will do the Great South Run even if I have to drag myself around."

Cpl Hatfield was a keen sportsman and played rugby for Devizes, cricket for Collingbourne and swam for Pewsey and Tidworth. He had many friends in Devizes, where his grandmother lives, and Pewsey where he went to school.

She said: “I try to take strength from the fact that Matthew loved his job and always said he would have no regrets should anything happen to him.

“It’s awful that he was so young with his whole life ahead of him. He has a five-year-old daughter and explaining to her what has happened will always be very hard.

“The army was his life. He loved his job and always wanted to be a soldier. He came back from Afghanistan and Iraq completely fine and it’s surreal that he ended up losing his life in the U.K.

“I used to enjoy running years ago and then an injury stopped me from continuing but Matthew always wanted me to start again. He was always encouraging me to take part in exercise.

“He was a really positive person and was always looking for a challenge. Losing Matthew has been really hard and in these situations you either sink or swim and if we had sunk he would be so angry with us.

“We decided to sign up to the Simplyhealth Great South Run to do something positive in his name and to make him proud.”

Fran and Samantha will be joined by Matthew’s step-father Ben Doherty, Samantha's partner Kieran Evans and friend Kimberley Richmond who was in the cadets with Cpl Hatfield.

Ms Chandler hopes to raise more than £1,000 for the charity from the run and to continue to fundraise in the future. His fiancee Jill McBride took part in a Tough Mudder obstacle race in Sussex last month and raised £2,000 for Tempest Burns Intensive Treatment Unit at the Welsh Centre for Burns and Plastic Surgery at Morriston Hospital where Cpl Hatfield was treated.