Rob Burrow's gone, but the runs go on
Kevin Sinfield heads back to the front line in the war against MND
There will be a ghost on the road when Kevin Sinfield sets off for his fifth long run in the fight against motor neurone disease.
But the spectre of Rob Burrow will bring smiles as well as sadness to Sinfield’s extreme challenge team. Burrow, who died from MND in June at the age of 41, was the reason Sinfield turned to monumental fund-raising efforts in 2020. He was, he says, “raising a little money for our little mate.” The mate has gone, but the struggle goes on.
This time, Sinfield’s intrepid band will run seven ultra marathons on consecutive days, on stages as far apart as Liverpool (on Sunday 1 Dec), Bristol, Belfast, Dublin, Glasgow, Hull, Leicester, and finally Saddleworth, near Oldham, where he forged his career in rugby league, alongside Burrow, in great Leeds Rhinos teams.
For the first time, there will be no encouraging (or mischievous) texts from Burrow when Sinfield completes each infernal run; no hugs with his old mate Rob, who he carried over the finishing line in the inaugural Leeds marathon - an image that reverberated around the world.
Understandably many of the questions in the build-up to this ‘Running Home for Christmas’ challenge have been about Burrow. “Rob’s been part of the first four. To not have him part of this one is pretty tough,” Sinfield says. “He’ll make me smile anyway. I don’t want this to be sad. There are some sad parts in it. We’ve lost him. We’ve lost a great man. But he wouldn’t want us to be dwelling on it. He’d want us to rip into it and have a smile on our face - and try to do it justice - which is what we intend to do.”
Sinfield’s dedication and almost masochist toughness have elevated him to national renown. Between runs, in his speeches, he espouses selfless - and endangered- values. This week he said: “We can all do a little bit. And what that little bit looks like is different for all of us. That can be a little bit for dementia, a little for cancer…[or] whatever illness people have a real affinity or relationship with. It can be reaching out to someone who needs a hand for Christmas. If we all do a little bit it can add up to a massive bit.”
The sincerity and modesty with which he delivers these thoughts cuts through the noise and exhibitionism of modern life. And it has made him a kind of unofficial Minister for Compassion. But less often recognised is that these week-long challenges haul him to the edge of darkness. On one, The Extra Mile (101 miles in 24 hours), he was close to collapse but found some hidden store of stubbornness and resolve to stagger the last few miles through Leeds. Driving him is a “fear of letting people down.”
There’s £10m in the bank for MND from the previous four challenges. But in that time MND has claimed Burrow and his great Scottish ally Doddie Weir, who helped Burrow devise a war plan to cope with the disease. Sinfield says this challenge will be “the toughest one so far,” and points to his head and his heart when saying: “It will probably be those that get me through.”
He’s a rugby legend, but not, by nature, a runner. He says: “People think at times I’m superhuman. That’s far, far from being what it is. I’ve got to work really hard. I don’t even like running. I wasn’t a cross-country runner at school. I played a sport that was based around intervals. And I’m asthmatic. You put all that together and it’s not a great combination.”
Fighting MND though has given him a purpose with spiritual dimensions. “I know why I’m here now,” he told reporters. He meant - here on earth. “It’s to try and help and support people in the MND community. To realise that at 40 is pretty special.”
The stars are aligning for this latest epic trip. It was announced this week that the new Rob Burrow MND Centre to be opened in Leeds - his greatest legacy - will be adorned with a symbol of defiance as well as hope. This, from The Guardian…
Sinfield has said many times that he would crawl if he had to to complete a challenge. In large part, years of underfunding have kept a cure for MND elusive. But the disease has an enemy - Kevin Sinfield - who won’t rest until he and the community he represents have consigned it to oblivion.
Paul Hayward
https://donate.giveasyoulive.com/fundraising/kevin-sinfield-and-teams-fundraising