The 47-year-old - whose 18-year-old son James was killed in action last year – has set up Hope 4 Heroes with the aim of building a one-stop centre in Yorkshire where relatives of service men and women can get counselling and meet and support each other.

She said: "At the moment there is no support for us. There is nowhere for families to communicate with each other and help each other out.
"Once your liaison of?cer is gone that's it, there's nothing. Then you get after care where you have to ring if there's a problem, but our af-
ter carer lives in Wales, which is no good. I've had no contact with her whatsoever.
"I feel a lot better when I talk to my close friends, relatives and the mums of other soldiers. They know how you feel because they're going through things themselves and when you're upset it makes you feel a lot better.
"Our ultimate aim is to set up a centre where soldiers who have come home can get rehabilitation, but if we can just start with a drop-in centre where people can come for support it would be great.
"We also want to buy some caravans so families can go away and have a break."

Sharon's son James, known as Jimmy, was serving in 2nd Battalion The Ri?es when he died in an explosion in Afghanistan last July.

She has collected £40,000 towards a memorial and garden in tribute to the soldier and has asked pupils at Airedale High School, where Jimmy was a pupil, to draw some designs.

Sharon, who also set up charity Afghan Heroes, said: "My main priority is getting James' memorial set up.
"We're close to our fundraising target of £50,000 and I've given the students a speci?cation of what kind of memorial we'd like.
"It would mean so much to us to see it happen. If it wasn't for doing all this I don't know how I would cope. It keeps your mind focused on what you want to achieve and it really does help."

Help 4 Heroes will be launched at Reighton Sands Holiday Village in Filey.