By Matt Badcock
John Farnworth used to stay behind after Garforth Town training sessions to practice his skills – now the professional freestyler is attempting to juggle a football as far up Mount Everest as he can!
The 32-year-old is taking on the daunting keepy-uppy challenge to raise money for Alzheimer's Society in memory of his grandad, who passed away last year with vascular dementia.
To train for the epic feat, the CBBC presenter and former freestyle world champion has been practising on Snowdon and even in altitude chambers to replicate the stress his body will have to endure.
Later this month, Farnworth will fly out to Lukla where he will juggle a football to Base Camp before, depending on weather, see how far he can climb up the world's highest mountain.
“The initial challenge is to get to Base Camp, so that will be a ten day trek,” Farnworth told The NLP.
“Most people walk it, I'm going to juggle a ball! Once I get to Base Camp I'm going to see how far up the mountain I can get.
“There's a lot of prep for endurance and the terrain – that's the worry and the other thing is the altitude. But it's actually been quite an enjoyable journey, it's been an education as well as a physical challenge.
“The main challenge is the altitude. I'm lucky I can drive to Snowdon in a couple of hours and train on the mountain. But even at the top there you don't really feel it. I'm fortunate I work with some people in London who have an altitude centre and have kindly donated their time. It's been really good fun and I'm looking forward to getting going.”
Farnworth has special waterproof running trainers but he'll have to also carry walking boots just in case.
He's going for his ninth world record – which includes juggling the ball while completing the London Marathon.
His freestyle career really took off in 2004 when he was playing for Garforth in the Northern Counties East League. Since then he's travelled to perform around the world.
“I made my debut for Garforth alongside Lee Sharpe so, playing-wise, that's a real highlight because I'd grown up watching Manchester United,” he said.
Symbolic
“When I got to 19 I really had this urge to take freestyle on. I'd met a lot of freestylers that I looked up to and I felt I could add my own thing to it, so I followed my passion. I started as a street performer in Manchester and went from there.
“Freestyle was even newer back then and the players would always ask me to do tricks. I always stayed behind to practice tricks I'd seen. The lads would say, tongue-in- cheek, ‘Why are you staying behind to do keep-ups, where's that going to get you?' But I enjoyed the fact I could have a ball and do whatever I wanted. That obviously helped me later on when I started to do challenges and shows. It's crazy really.”
As well as another record, Farnworth wants to raise awareness and money for sufferers of Alzheimer's disease.
“My grandad got me into football in the first place,” Farnworth said. “We lost him last year but he suffered for many years. It was a realisation of what was important in our lives. I wanted to do something that would be a struggle for me to be symbolic of what other people are dealing with in their lives. Hopefully we can raise awareness and a lot of money for charity.”
http://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/everestfootball
*This article originally featured in The @NonLeaguePaper which is available every Sunday and Monday
