Rugby league legend and fundraiser Kevin Sinfield is bringing his latest motor neurone running challenge to Gloucester and Bristol next week – and meeting some local sporting legends touched by the disease along the way.
Sinfield embarked on fundraising challenges originally to support his best mate Rob Burrow – who died from MND back in June – and has vowed to keep going in memory of his friend.
The ex-player will start his fifth annual ‘Running Home for Christmas’ challenge on Sunday and the second day, on Monday, will see him start from Gloucester’s Kingsholm rugby stadium, where he will meet up with Gloucester Rugby star Ed Slater, who was diagnosed with MND in 2022.
The destination is Bristol, where he will stop off at the Memorial Ground and meet Bristol football legend Marcus Stewart and Gloucestershire and England cricket hero David ‘Syd’ Lawrence, both of whom are battling motor neurone disease.
“It has been wonderful to see the support that the people of Gloucester and Bristol have given to Ed, Syd and Marcus since their own diagnosis,” Sinfield said. “We have seen over the last four challenges how much this country cares for the MND community and we must continue to give all those impacted by this disease the hope to carry on.”
Monday’s challenge will then take him from the Mem in Horfield to Ashton Gate, where stadium bosses are opening up the Lansdown Stand and are calling for a big crowd of sports fans and supporters to come and cheer him across the finish line.
Sinfield, 44, has helped raise in excess of £16 million in aid of Motor Neurone Disease since Burrow was diagnosed back in December 2019, and he’s not giving up now, despite Burrow’s tragic death in June this year.
“This was only ever put together because we were doing a little run for our mate and were trying to raise a little bit of money four years ago,” he said. “I think of Rob a lot and I’ll certainly be thinking of him along the way, share a lot of stories about him, laugh and no doubt he’ll be with us in spirit.”
In December last year Sinfield ran seven ultra-marathons in as many days across seven different cities. This year it’s a bit different, and more of a gruelling, shuttle-run challenge. He will run more than 50km a day, but each bit will be split into 7km blocks that he has to complete within an hour, before starting the next block.
On Monday, he will set off from Kingsholm in Gloucester at 7am. The first 7km block will take him to the edge of the city, then down the A38 to Whitminster before 9am, Slimbridge AFC before 10am, Chapel Hill, Eastwood Park and on towards the Winter Stream Farm pub in Hambrook on the northern edge of Bristol, hopefully by 1.30pm.
He is due to arrive at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield to rendezvous with Marcus Stewart and Syd Lawrence just after 2.30pm, before setting off from there at 3pm for the final 7km run to Ashton Gate.
“Rob’s been a part of the first four challenges. To have him not around this time is pretty tough,” Sinfield said. “I won’t be getting his text messages of an evening. I’m not quite sure how I’ll be emotionally. I’ll probably find out when we’re in the thick of it and it’s pretty dark out there.
“It means a lot to me that we represent him and his family in the right way. He’ll make me smile I know that. I don’t want this to be sad. We’ve lost a great man, but he’ll want us to rip into this and have a smile on our face and do it justice, do him justice,” he added.
The 7-in-7 challenge is a tribute to the number 7 Burrow wore in his playing career, and so far they have raised close to £10m on their own.
“They don’t get any easier, they just don’t,” Sinfield said. “The training has been brutal. I hate running, I don’t even like running and I’m asthmatic, so if you put all that together it’s not a great combination,” he added.
- Members of the public can sponsor Sinfield here or by texting Kevin10 to 70143 to donate £10. For more details of the entire route for the 2024 challenge, visit here.