The legacy of Rob Burrow on Global Motor Neurone Disease Awareness Day
The MND Association says the rugby star has dramatically increased awareness of the condition, and that has also been seen locally in Lancashire and Greater Manchester.
The Motor Neurone Disease Association says the passing of rugby star Rob Burrow has dramatically increased awareness and internet searches about the condition in the short time since his death.
The 41-year-old died on 2nd June 2024 after being diagnosed with the disease in December 2019. At the time of his death he had raised over £6m for MND awareness and treatment charities.
MND is an incurable condition which affects the brain and the nerves, causing muscle weakness which gets worse over time. The condition is known to significantly reduce life expectancy, eventually leading to death.
Now, on Global MND Awareness Day, the MND Association has revealed 45,000 people visited their website on the day of Rob Burrow's death; searching for information about the rugby star and symptoms of the rare condition. It's a 2,150% increase compared with the usual traffic to the site, and 44,000 of those visitors had never previously used the web page.
Cris Hoskin from Wigan chairs the South Lancashire branch of the charity after losing five family members to the condition herself. She says the support from the local rugby community has played a huge role in awareness raising: "It's been off the chart compared to when I first started trying to raise awareness and funds in 1998. What we're also seeing now is that when people get diagnosed they're not asking what it is, they're recognising that it's what Rob Burrow had. So he's raised awareness at ground level as well.
"We have an awareness raising match tonight between Leeds and Leigh Leopards and the community's thrown themselves whole heartedly behind it. I think it's because Rob was such an amazing character. He was always told "you can't do that", and he said "yes I can and I’ll show you". He was an amazing player on the pitch and he faced his diagnosis of MND in the same way.
"Although we knew he couldn't, we wanted him to go on forever. So when he died, it felt unexpected at the time it came. It's been a shock that's taken a while to get over and I don't think we'll fully move on until we've said goodbye to him properly."
In his final statement, shared on the BBC, Rob said: "By the time that you watch this I will no longer be here. I am just a lad from Yorkshire who got to live out his dream of playing rugby league. As a father of three young children, I would never want any family to have to go through what my family have since my diagnosis. I hope I have left a mark on the disease. I hope it shows to live in the moment. I hope you find inspiration from the whole story. I hope one day we find a cure and live in a world free of MND. 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.”
Cris says that message resonates with her, especially after everything her family has been through with MND: "Our dream is that one day we will have a world free of MND, but in the meantime we need to keep what we're doing to raise awareness and funds to support those living with it until we do find that cure."
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