Chester’s young Everest adventurer to launch University’s 2023 Diversity Festival: Action for Change

Chester-born adventurer and inspirational speaker Alex Staniforth will share his experience, strength and survival story at the University of Chester’s Diversity Festival.

The 27-year-old, who grew up in Kelsall will discuss the many challenges he’s faced during his life, and not just those he faced on Mount Everest.

Alex, who went to Kelsall Primary School and Tarporley High and Sixth Form, survived two of the biggest disasters in the mountain’s history, including the 2015 Nepal earthquake.

But as he’ll explain at the festival launch on Monday, February 27, it’s also the challenges closer to home that have driven his mission to help others, having suffered with epilepsy, stammering, bullying and mental ill health since childhood.

A believer that adversity brings opportunity, Alex is committed to helping others build resilience through adventure. He’s now a record-breaking adventurer, international motivational speaker, ultra-runner, author of two books and founder of Mind Over Mountains, a charity restoring mental health through nature.

He is the fastest person to date to climb all 100 UK county tops and won the Pride of Britain Granada Reports Fundraiser of the Year in 2017. In 2020 he ran the National Three Peaks Challenge – completing 452 miles in just nine days and 12 hours.

“Raising money for charity has always been important to my values. My grandma, Norma, instilled that in me from a young age,” he explains.

“Being able to use personal challenge as a force for doing good was a win-win, it added so much more meaning to the journey. I’ve done most of my challenges on behalf of a charity or cause.

“But the major shift was after Everest in 2015. I felt an obligation to my teammates and those who’d died to give something back; to turn this disaster into something positive.

“I’ve never forgotten the sheer resilience and gratitude of the Sherpas that had lost everything. It touches everyone who visits Nepal. I had great friends and mentors who were there to help me pick up the pieces.

“One person in particular, my friend Richard, rang me a few days after getting home when I’d started to shut myself away. He said ‘this is probably the best thing that’s ever happened to you’. And now I know what he meant. Over the years that’s focused on mental health, but the core value is the same.”

With long Covid having put paid to his running for now, he is focussing on making a comeback while finding other tools to protect his mental health, and to help others. 

If there is one piece of advice he would pass on to anyone facing challenging times, it’s that ‘experience is wisdom’.

“I think it’s a case of trusting the process,” he says. “Now, when anything bad or major happens in my life, I quickly start to realise that this has been sent to test me for a reason. Whether it’s true or not I’m not sure, but ultimately, we always choose our response to challenges. Having this positive mindset and acceptance allows us to find new opportunities.”

The 2023 Diversity Festival: Action for Change launch event takes place at the University of Chester’s Exton Park Campus from 12.45pm to 2.15pm on Monday, February 27. Tickets for Finding our Everest- taking advantage of adversityare free but booking is essential. Click here for more details.

For a full programme of events for this year’s festival click here.