Running after Rob: Burrow’s wife Lindsey is staying life’s course

Nobody can answer the question of “why we run” more convincingly than Lindsey Burrow. In this year’s London Marathon, Burrow wanted to run in honour of her late husband Rob Burrow – the rugby league legend who died last year from motor neurone disease (MND) – for their three children, the MND community and carers across Britain. Crucially, she runs too for herself.

Overwhelming grief requires its valves, its therapies, and for Lindsey long runs reconnected her to childhood memories of her father pounding through London streets. Running offered some release from the desolation of seeing Rob deteriorate to a point where eye movements, to the left or right, were his only way of saying whether he wanted his palliative care to be tapered off; whether, as she recalls in her memoir, Take Care, he had “had enough”.

“To me it’s not just about running the race. It’s about resilience, with training, sticking to a plan, a commitment – and also that mental strength,” she says. “There are times where running teaches you to push through difficulty. I just think the pain and fatigue are temporary, you’ll recover from this. It’s about never giving up.”

The “never giving up” part expresses what she drew from her husband’s fight against certain death. Rob Burrow, a Leeds Rhinos and Great Britain star, passed away last June aged 41 having been diagnosed with MND two years after calling time on a 17-year playing career. He and his former Leeds team-mate Kevin Sinfield raised more than £15million for MND research and care, attracting huge national attention.

But when the funerals and memorials and tributes are over, the victim’s family are left to begin again. As Rob descended from the early symptoms of slurred speech to incapacitation, Lindsey was his full-time carer while looking after their young children, Macy, Maya and Jackson, and working as an NHS physiotherapist.

Her running story began with the inaugural Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon in 2023. A few steps short of the end, Sinfield lifted Burrow from the wheelchair he had been pushing him round in and carried him over the finish line. The image went global.

Nine weeks out from the Leeds race, Lindsey injured her knee: “I knew a sore knee would get better. You looked at Rob and thought – he’s not going to get better, he’s not going to recover. There were times in the run when I thought about him and how he was suffering. Me having a bit of knee pain was insignificant compared to what Rob was going through.

“I got to see him as he came flying past [in his chair]. I finished about 30 minutes after Rob and Kev and it wasn’t until I was going into the tunnel at Headingley when I saw one of the photographers had got the image of Kev carrying Rob over the finish line.

“For me it encapsulated what the marathon was about. It was about friendship and that brotherhood, that coming together. You’d got two guys who’d played probably the toughest sport showing that brotherhood and that love and that care.”

The seed of marathon running was already present: “I was inspired by my dad who ran the London Marathon five times and I have childhood memories of going to see him run and finish, then delving into the goodie bag to see what was in it and what we could pinch out of it. I’d done a bit of running – a few 10ks with my dad growing up, and a couple of half marathons. I’d always wanted to run a marathon but never been fortunate enough to get a place to run the London one, the one I’d set my heart on running, in my dad’s footsteps.”

This spring she entered not one but two 26.2 mile runs. After London she planned to return to the Yorkshire streets to continue her fund-raising for Leeds Hospitals Charity and the Leeds Rhinos Foundation. Guiding her efforts now is the new Rob Burrow specialist MND Centre.

“Having one in Leeds in Rob’s name would help so many families, but also it’s a place where we can go and remember Rob,” she says. “We can take the children there. The current centre is not fit for purpose. It’s on an old infectious disease ward, there’s no natural light in there, the car park is a long way from where you need to be. A lot of MND patients have mobility issues. Nobody looks forward to going into hospital but having a purpose-built centre will make such a difference to families.”

Shortly before he died, Burrow made a recording: “My final message to you is, whatever your personal battle, be brave and face it. Every single day is precious. Don’t waste a moment. In a world full of adversity we must still dare to dream. Rob Burrow, over and out.”

A private man who would leave team drinking sessions early to go home to his family, Burrow nevertheless came round to the role of public MND campaigner, even as his illness left him needing an ‘eye gaze’ computer to communicate.

“For Rob to go out and show people the reality of living with MND and show how it affects not just the person but the whole family was a really brave thing to do,” Lindsey says. “I thought he might shut his doors. But the outpouring of love and support he received inspired him to try and help other people and show them there is hope.

“He was so vulnerable. Pound for pound he was probably the strongest player in the team, super fit, then to succumb to the disease, and be unable to do even simple things we take for granted… making a cup of tea, cleaning your teeth, scratching your nose.”

People stop the Burrow family in the street and say, “Thank you for sharing your story, because it’s helped me change my life, it’s given me a kick up the backside to get back on track.”

But the heart still lurches to think of Lindsey Burrow running to dilute her sorrow, Jackson with his “worry worm”, Maya with her knitted heart and Macy with a lock of her father’s hair. Their mother’s London Marathon run is about a life lost but also about lives continuing, as they must.

She says: “As a parent you’re a role model for your children and I think what Rob showed is that life is for living – to live each day to the fullest. Rob never asked why me, never felt sorry for himself, he just got on with life. I hope the children will take something from that.

“One of the things Rob said to me in a message he recorded was – ‘I want you to be happy, Lindsey. I don’t want you to be sad. Carry on with life.’ I made that promise to Rob. Me feeling sorry for myself is not going to change my situation.

“I’ve got three beautiful children. I’ve got so much to be grateful for. I was married to Rob for 17 years. Rob was the love of my life. I’m so thankful to have had that time with him.

“I do look back and say – why, why has that happened to our family. If I can just show the children, as Rob said, that life is for living, stay positive. That’s why I decided to run these two marathons, to help me with that grieving process. It’s given me a purpose, it’s given me a challenge, a focus.

“Thinking of Rob and his bravery, his toughness, and what he went through … his spirit will be with me.”

Photographs: Danny Lawson/PA Images, George Wood/Getty