Norwich City: Stuart Webber on Everest climb and charity

The Canaries’ former sporting director departs on April 22 for a challenge a lifetime in the making, to scale the highest mountain on earth and the fourth highest peak Lhotse, located in the same Himalayan range, during a potential four-week expedition.

“For sure it's the biggest challenge I have ever faced because there's factors way out of my control, and, let’s be honest, it is life or death whereas football has never been that,” he said. “In all my time at Norwich, or Huddersfield, Wolves and Liverpool no one ever died. If we lost, if we won, if we won a title it wasn’t life or death.

“Yes, excited and I feel ready. Maybe like someone who has been preparing to do a marathon. You just want to get out there and run it now.

“I'm probably starting to think about how worried my family are about it. My mum doesn't say a lot, bless her, but she's scared. And I know she's scared because when I speak to her, I can tell.

"I know I'm going to be leaving a wife alone with my son for three to four weeks. that's going to be hell for her because her husband's away, there's going to be limited contact and I’m in a dangerous place.

“And then obviously, my son. I'm lucky, I think, because he's still at a stage where he just thinks it's exciting, as opposed to dangerous. I worry about them being upset while I'm away. It's easier when you're doing the action because you're in control.

"They are sat there waiting for a phone call which no wife, son, parent or whatever wants to receive. If I ever start feeling upset then it is thinking about how they are feeling.”

Webber adopted the same all-consuming approach to his mountain challenge he has in a 20-year football career.

“I always wanted to climb Everest,” he said. “When I looked into it during lockdown I wanted to see how possible is it for a normal person like me, or do you have to be some sort of superhuman?

"Then when I saw what I had to do to achieve it, it was about not cutting corners. Some people do that in life and that's all right for them, but I have tried to give myself the best chance of success.

"More importantly to come back alive to my family because that's what's really important. I have a young family and hopefully the next 40, 50 years ahead of me in my own life. When you are told you have to do two hours fitness work every morning, even when I was working and I had to get up at 4am to fit that in, then no problem.

“It’s all about trying to help your body adapt. At sea level there is 20pc oxygen in the air, at the top of Everest is around 6pc. So you are trying to create more red blood cells in your body to help adapt to that height.

“I'm doing a little bit with a psychologist on how to deal with certain dangers, and certain situations which could come up on the mountain, and around people.

"I leave England on April 22 and the next five weeks is a lot of time in London at the altitude centre there, which I've been training at, because they’ve got people who can replicate taking you up to over 8,000 metres.

"It's been quite interesting for me, because it's probably given me a greater appreciation of athletes when I think about the players I have worked with in football, and the absolute commitment they have to show to be an athlete. Just the stuff that people don't see, maybe the boring stuff, doing yoga, the reactivation stuff, nutrition, hydration, recovery.

"I've had to do this, not to the level of a professional footballer, but it is boring when you're running at 5am in the morning in the dark, alone. I always had huge respect for athletes anyway, but it's probably gone up another notch.”

Webber’s personal drive is matched by his aim to try and raise £50,000 for the Summit Foundation charity he founded with his wife, and City executive director, Zoe Webber, in 2022 to provide better life opportunities for young people in Norfolk.

“When I started this journey my wife said if you are doing this use it to raise awareness to do good for other people. I didn’t want it to become a show, because there are downsides to it when it becomes a show and something to be criticised for,” he said, which you could take as a pointed reference to the furore when he first announced his Everest plan towards the end of the club’s second Premier League relegation.

“But we felt we could raise some money to help young people. We care about the area, we care about the people. It's been an amazing place for us to bring up a son and we're very passionate about it.

"For us also, as well, Norfolk has become our home and will be our home whatever comes next. We were super conscious when we had our son neither Zoe or myself had a place that we could actually call home, because you are always on the move. But for him we wanted to have somewhere where, in 20 years, he'll come back to Norfolk because that is our home.

"We think it's a place where so much good comes from it, because when you have lived in other parts of the UK you realise how special this place is.

“We have to give the young people in this area something to strive for, to inspire them and, if we can, give them financial support. Post-Everest, we'll continue the charity work, we might end up joining up with another charity, because hopefully I am back at work by then and my time, and my wife’s time, is limited. Trying to improve opportunities for young people touches us.

“There is still bed poverty in Norfolk, where children don’t have a bed to sleep in, and I see Norfolk as quite an affluent area compared to other places I have lived. We all have a responsibility, particularly those who might have a voice.

"Our son is very fortunate in that he goes to a good school and he has opportunities within that school. We're not doing it for him and people like him, we're doing it for the people who probably have more of an upbringing like me and my wife, where we didn't have these opportunities and you had to scrap for everything.”

The Canaries first team squad have pledged more than £13,000 to Webber’s mountain challenge, as the charity look to support more youngsters like Norwich-based teenage tennis player Georgia Routledge follow her dream.

“That was amazing,” he said. “The last couple days around the Cardiff game (in November) just blew me away. On the Friday Neil Adams got all the players, all the staff together in the restaurant, and they did a presentation to me.

"They showed a video which I think the club put out as well. But also that day Grant Hanley, as captain, came to see me.

"He’d texted the day before to say would I have a minute. He said a few nice words and said the lads had all clubbed together to say thank you, but we didn't know what to do in terms of buying you something, so we want to give it to the charity. That was amazing.

“We’re at £20,000, more or less, with a few promises and I am hoping during the journey if we can get it to that figure we can help a lot of people. Georgia, I think, we helped with £2,500 from the money we had previously raised, and if we could reach that target then we have 20 versions of Georgia.

“We want to help the guys who really need it, not the ones who are maybe privileged. I saw that with our young footballers. Jonny Rowe wouldn’t mind me saying it but him, Abu Kamara, Max (Aarons), Jamal (Lewis), Raheem (Sterling) back in the day at Liverpool, where they come from it had to work out for them in football, because the alternative is potentially jail or something else.

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Jonny, Abu, Max, Jamal and Raheem are fantastic role models and a credit to themselves, their profession and their families.

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"If we can help these young people to help themselves then hopefully they can inspire another generation. The vision is can we help Georgia, a tennis player, who in five years can return that favour for the next Georgia?

"It feels like as a country we are in a crisis and the only way out is to create opportunities for each other. We have to try and make it a better place. I worry when my son is 16 or 17 what type of a society he is coming into.

"We can only affect our little corner and do a little bit to help but if that helps 10 people over the next five years then that is 10 people more than before. We are not going to change the world.

"We're just super grateful for the people who support it so far and continue to do so, whether that is financially, whether that's promoting it, whatever it is, you know, we would never ask for anything.”

To find out more or to support the Summit Foundation’s work for young people in Norfolk you can pledge at https://thesummitfoundation.co.uk/

In the final part of our exclusive chat, Webber offers his revealing analysis of his time at Norwich City. That is available on the Pinkun channels on Saturday lunchtime.