A 23-year-old woman is taking on one of the world's most physically and mentally exhausting challenges in an effort to become the first female Paratrooper.

Lieutenant Jenny Hands is going through the notorious P Company training course at Catterick Garrison's Infantry Training Centre, in North Yorkshire.

Lt Hands, from Birmingham, must complete the four-week Parachute Regiment course, the toughest outside the special forces, in order to receive the red beret.

It will test her physical and mental strength and find out whether she has the self-discipline and motivation required to be a member of the regiment.

The course includes a 1.7 mile run with 25 obstacles to be completed in under 19 minutes and an aerial obstacle course, which includes jumping 5ft from a narrow wooden platform to another 40ft in the air.

There is also a log race, where teams of eight carry a log around a 1.8-mile course, and ten and 20-mile marches carrying a 35lb backpack and a rifle.

Lt Hands, a logistics expert with the Royal Logistic Corps' 13 Air Assault Support Regiment, based in Colchester, Essex, said: "I am looking forward to it in a perverse sort of way. I just hope I can do myself justice."

She will not face combat if she passes the course, because women are still banned from fighting on the front-line.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "If she passes, she will become the first woman to win the coveted Para beret."

In 2002, Captain Philippa Tattersall became the first woman to win the Royal Marines green beret at the age of 27.