A fashion retail executive who has become something of a fitness mentor for middle age women is embarking on the challenge of a lifetime with nine other female professionals.
Fiona Lambert has joined a team which includes White Company chief executive Mary Homer, former Cath Kidston CEO Melinda Paraie, Next Beauty CEO Amanda Scott and M&S board member Cheryl Potter to embark on an eight day hike to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
Between them they hope to raise at least £100,000 for a Prince’s Trust Initiative called Women Supporting Women, set up to secure a future for the near 400,000 women estimated to wake up each day without work, education or training – many of them dealing with issues such as domestic abuse, the challenges of single parenthood and homelessness.
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The team flies out on October 8 following months of preparations which have included high altitude training at a specialist sports centre in London.
Fiona, from Oadby, Leicestershire has held senior roles at Next, George, its parent company Asda, Dunelm and River Island and was – until last December – heading up the relaunched Jaeger brand for Marks and Spencer.
She left Jaeger after M&S decided to shake up the brand to bring it more in line with its existing operations and infrastructure.
She now works as a consultant for clients such as Matalan, but a bid to get fit for her 60th birthday has turned into a personal odyssey to help other middle aged women look after themselves.
She said: “It’s been a very odd year for me. I’ve sort of ended up, by default, becoming a bit of a fitness influencer – an inspiration to middle aged women.
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“It’s quite fun. I still keep my hand in and do bits of consulting in fashion, but it’s a strange pivot in career.
“I did a fitness challenge at the beginning of the year, which was just a nine week thing for my 60 th birthday, and was literally just a personal challenge. But I got thrown into the spotlight – which wasn’t my intention – and before I knew it, it ended up becoming a bit of a purpose for me because there were so many women saying they had lost faith because they’d reached middle age and they’d given up.
“Because I’m not some kind of celebrity but a real person people have found real motivation in it, so my followers on Instagram are at 10,500 and Kaye Adams who was on Loose Women wants me on a podcast and I’ve been asked to write a book. It’s all very bizarre.
“I’ve been approached by publishers, but they’re talking about doing a great big hard back which would take forever. Another friend of mine at M&S self-published and said I should do that and make it a £7-£8 thing and more affordable.
“But I really like helping people so I’ve ended up sort of falling into it. It’s all about exercises people can do at home and I’m learning how to do content and videos that I’m putting on Instagram and TikTok. I’m having fun.
“I’ve got no desire to go back to any big role in fashion – I’ve kind of done every job that I want to do.”
Fiona said she loved the near two years she spent overseeing Jaeger for M&S – getting the brand up on the main website and opening successful concessions in its stores.
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She said: “I’m really proud of what I did, and when it was changed in November I thought “I’ve really enjoyed doing it, I’ve done a completely new store fit, I’ve rebranded it, launched internationally, I’m really happy with what I’ve done but, you know what, I’m going to step out for a while”.
“I’m now finding inspiration in helping other people.”
She said the 42 mile route up 19,340ft (5,895m) Kilimanjaro will see them climbing for seven days and descending for one – hopefully avoiding any oxygen related problems en route.
Fiona said: “The long and the short of it is there’s a thing called Women Supporting Women which is serious businesswomen who want to give back, through the Princes Trust, to help underprivileged women.
“I was asked to do it by Mary Homer from The White Company and Lucy Harris [founding partner of executive recruitment agency Altrua]. I’ve done work with the Prince’s Trust in the past and think it’s a fantastic charity that a lot of people don’t realise what they do.
“Kilimanjaro is higher than Everest base camp.
“The altitude training is horrible. I thought doing this climb would just be a physical challenge, but the altitude sickness means even people who are fit often don’t make it because your body might not cope.
“So we’re doing altitude training to get accustomed to it – you’re masked up and they feed you oxygen at the deprived level that you will be breathing it. They start you at the equivalent of 3,500m and you’re put on a treadmill at an incline.
“Honestly, it was terrifying because the symptoms are nausea, light-headedness, headaches… When I first went on it I thought I was being suffocated because I couldn’t get enough air.
“But it does train your body to get used to it.”
And once Africa’s highest peak is conquered, could Everest be on the cards?
She said: “Not at the moment, but who knows – I do like to set myself new challenges.
“Beginning my 60 th year I had a bucket-list of things I wanted to achieve and Kilimanjaro wasn’t on it. But when the opportunity came up I wasn’t going to say no.”
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Fiona Lambert’s Instagram is at @fionalambertofficial.