contestants

Name: Linda Barker
Age: 41
Celebrity supporters: Ainsley Harriott, Sally Whittaker who plays Sally Webster in Coronation Street.
Special skills: Decorating, knowledge of jungle animals from watching Animal Planet

What will you miss the most?
"I will miss my daughter massively and my husband. I will miss really good bed linen and eating of beautiful china, I love my home and all my home things. I really enjoy cooking a meal and having my friends round - that is what I will miss. Decorating is my passion and not only my work I love things to be in order as it makes me quite happy really. My surroundings really affect me and if I am decorating the room it can be really uplifting I can get a really positive experience from it. If I get in and I think a bed is in the wrong place I will move it! Hopefully the other people in the camp will appreciate it!"

What made you decide to appear on the show?
"I agreed to do it because I think it is a once in a life time opportunity and I am just really thrilled to think I can be part of this experience. I am really interested in meeting up with a group of people that I have never been with before and just seeing how we get on. I think that really intrigues me and being out in quite an extreme place so you are really pushed to your limits. It will be good to see how I will cope because you don’t experience these extreme things in day to day life."

Which celebrities will be supporting you back home?
"I hope Ainsley Harriott is going to cook me supper when I get back from the jungle. Sally Whittaker, from Coronation Street, will also be rooting for me. I did her flat a long time ago before I was on television and we are really good friends."

What did you make of the contestants in the first series?
"I found it quite intriguing I thought Tara did brilliantly. I had a completely preconceived idea of her. I thought she was a spoilt little rich kid. I don’t know what people will say about me. They may see a different me as, although we are who we are on Changing Rooms, at the end of the day I am doing a job and people are surprised that I am really practical and honest."

What skills do you have that might come in handy?
"I am very resourceful and I could make anything. I could make a house if I had to. I’m sure I could knock something up out of some twigs and bamboo. My dad is a wholesale butcher and farmer so I am not scared about knowing where meat comes from and if I needed to I could skin a snake and gut fish - I’m not squeamish at all."