KEVIN Sinfield will traverse Saddleworth before joining more than 2,200 Santas as he Runs Home for Christmas in his latest fundraising challenge.
The rugby league legend, now skills and kicking coach of England’s rugby union team, embarks on his fifth physical feat of endurance on December 1.
He and his team will visit seven regions across Great Britain and Northern Ireland and cover more than 50 kilometres a day as he adds to the almost £10 million he has already raised for motor neurone disease charities, the condition friend and former team-mate Rob Burrow lived with for four-and-a-half years until his death in June.
Each will be broken down into seven-kilometre blocks, the number seven again central in recognition of Burrow, who wore the number during his glittering career alongside him at Leeds Rhinos.
The team will aim to complete each within one hour before the next must start on the hour, meaning the only rest between each leg is the time spare after they have completed each one.
And the final day, Saturday, December 7, will be extra special as Sinfield is literally running home.
Starting at 7.15am at Manchester United’s Old Trafford, where he and Burrow created so many special memories during their playing days, he will head to Manchester via Media City before calling at the Etihad Stadium on his way to Oldham.
The 44-year-old, who lives in Grasscroft, will stop where his rugby journey began – junior club Waterhead – before he is surrounded by Santas.
For after heading to Delph’s Old Bell Inn, after passing through Scouthead on the A62, he will then go through Dobcross and Diggle then join more than 2,200 people to set off the annual Saddleworth Santa Dash in Uppermill.
He then leaves that event to head to his own finish line at Grasscroft’s Farrars Arms, the same place his finished his first ever challenge in 2020.
During that last day, he will be joined by the family of 22-year-old Jordan Pilkington – one of the youngest people in the UK to be diagnosed with the condition and who passed away earlier this year – at Old Trafford.
Former footballer Len Johnrose – who died aged 52 in 2022 – and Warrington rugby league team-mates Mike Gregory and Paul Darbyshire, who passed away in 2007 and 2011 respectively, will also be remembered.
Sinfield will be raising money for six MND charities with the MND Association being the primary partner and will aid its work.
And he cannot wait to finish in the area he knows best.
He said: “The theme for our challenge this year is ‘Running Home for Christmas’ and we will be building up to the last day and joining all the Santas in Uppermill.
“It is always a great day in the area and I would like to thank the organisers for allowing us to be part of it.
“The whole week is an opportunity to show the MND community that we have not forgotten them and we will continue to bang the drum.”
Members of the public can sponsor Sinfield at https://donate.giveasyoulive.com/fundraising/kevin-sinfield-and-teams-fundraising or by texting Kevin10 to 70143 to donate £10.
For more details of the entire route for the 2024 challenge, visit www.therhinos.co.uk/the-club/sinfield-christmas-2024.
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