SADDLEWORTH’S rugby league icon turned fundraising phenomenon Kevin Sinfield is going back out on the road again.
The former Leeds Rhinos star, now skills and kicking coach for England’s rugby union side, has announced details of his sixth physical challenge for motor neurone disease charities in the name of friend and former team-mate Rob Burrow.
7 in 7 – Together will see Sinfield and his team complete seven ultra marathons in seven days across Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland from December 1-7.
This year’s theme is based on locations that could be overlooked by major events so the MND community in each know they are not forgotten.
Starting at Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, leg one ends in Ipswich, where friend Marcus Stewart – who is living with MND – played.
Then he will visit Cork, Swansea, Sheffield, Cumbria and Dundee before ending in Burrow’s adopted home city of Leeds.
Just like his last ‘Running Home For Christmas challenge, which finished in Saddleworth, each day will be broken down into 7km blocks that Sinfield must complete inside the hour, before setting off on the next leg on the hour.
And he admits he likes the physical feats, telling BBC Breakfast: “It’s good for me. It’s almost a form of therapy at times.
“You may find this quite bizarre but after a couple of days you’re almost back to normal.
“There’s a bit of tiredness that stays with you for a couple of weeks because the battery’s depleted but body wise you tend to get back together pretty quickly.
“There are some places that don’t get a lot of love – that’s the best way of putting it – but have some significant or important people we’ve net across the last few years who have links to a particular place.
“We start in Ipswich and over the last couple of years we’ve become good friends with Marcus Stewart, who has MND, so it made sense to go there.
“We’ve committed to doing seven annual challenges, as most people know the number seven is special to us because it is the number Rob wore.
“There are so many special memories from the previous challenges when people are so grateful that we have come to their village, town or city. With this penultimate challenge we wanted to continue that theme.”
Six MND charities will once again benefit from the challenge. The MND Association are the main beneficiary along with donations to Leeds Hospitals Charity’s support for the Rob Burrow Centre, Irish MND Association, Darby Rimmer Foundation, My Name’5 Doddie Foundation and MND Scotland.
Many of Burrow’s former team-mates, as well as his family, will also gather at Leeds Rhinos’ AMT Headingley stadium as Leeds face Wakefield on Saturday, May 31 in the Super League game closest to the first anniversary of his death on June 2.
And Sinfield added: “It’s really important we still remember and share and keep his legacy going.”
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