{"id":259496,"date":"2025-11-03T10:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T10:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/259496\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T10:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T10:25:10","slug":"family-of-rugby-league-star-rob-burrow-opens-state-of-the-art-mnd-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/259496\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of rugby league star Rob Burrow opens state-of-the-art MND centre"},"content":{"rendered":"

The family of the late rugby league star Rob Burrow has opened the first purpose-built centre dedicated entirely to MND care, research and support, which has been hailed as a \u201ctransformative moment in care\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease (MND) was officially opened at Seacroft Hospital in Leeds on Monday.<\/p>\n

Burrow\u2019s son Jackson helped cut the ribbon surrounded by his mother, Lindsey, her other children \u2013 Macy and Maya \u2013 Burrow\u2019s parents, and dozens of supporters who have helped realise the project.<\/p>\n

The centre was the dream of the Leeds Rhinos star and his consultant Dr Agam Jung, who also wielded the scissors on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

Mrs Burrow told BBC Breakfast: \u201cIt\u2019s a really special day.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust incredibly proud to be here, to have so many of the staff that work at the centre and the patients here, it\u2019s such an honour to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cThis is the flagship centre but, hopefully, other centres will open. This is the first of its kind in the UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have this centre here in Leeds is incredibly special in Rob\u2019s name.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her daughter Macy said: \u201cIt\u2019s just incredible, and we\u2019re all really proud, and I know my dad would be immensely proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

The centre been made possible thanks to a \u00a36.8 million fundraising campaign, led by Leeds Hospitals Charity and supported by Burrow\u2019s friend and former Leeds Rhinos teammate Kevin Sinfield.<\/p>\n

More than 17,000 donors have contributed so far to the centre and patients, their families, clinical specialists and the wider MND community have all been involved in its design.<\/p>\n

The building work has been completed less than 18 months after Burrow died in June 2024.<\/p>\n

Dr Jung, who is consultant neurologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and director of the centre, said it is born from Burrow\u2019s determination to create a place that treats patients as people, not conditions.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease (MND) has been opened at Seacroft Hospital in Leeds (Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust\/PA)<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cIt has been five years since the germination of the idea to build this centre \u2013 a legacy of Rob\u2019s strength, his family\u2019s support, and the compassion of an entire community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so grateful to so many people who have worked together to make this dream a reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very pleased when Rob fully embraced the Leeds MND Service ethos of \u2018Living in the Now\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted to leave a legacy for people to be able to do so, and this has spread across the MND community.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us who work in this incredible new centre will focus on providing the very best care and community for families and patients to do just that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rob<\/p>\n

Rob Burrow with his wife Lindsey in 2024 (PA)<\/p>\n

Chief executive of Leeds Hospitals Charity, Esther Wakeman, said: \u201cWhen we launched the fundraising appeal with Dr Jung and the Burrow family in September 2021, we could have never imagined the outpouring of support it would receive, from right across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn just three years, we were able to reach the \u00a36.8 million target.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to say a special thanks to Kevin Sinfield for his heroic fundraising, going above and beyond in honour of his friendship with Rob, and he goes again this year with his latest challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has inspired so many people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rob<\/p>\n

Kevin Sinfield pushes Rob Burrow at the start of the 2023 Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon (PA)<\/p>\n

Sally Hughes, director of services and partnerships at the MND Association, said the centre \u201cmarks a transformative moment in care for people with MND in Leeds and across West Yorkshire\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cThis purpose-built facility, inspired by our late patron, will provide a supportive and compassionate environment for everyone affected by MND \u2013 for the person diagnosed and their family too which is so important when facing such a life-changing disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burrow died at the age of 41 after a four-and-a-half-year battle with MND.<\/p>\n

The ground-breaking ceremony for the MND centre went ahead on the day his death was announced, with his family saying he \u201cwould be looking down and smiling\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of the late rugby league star Rob Burrow has opened the first purpose-built centre dedicated entirely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,152866,133132,152865,94196,152862,152863,58109,152867,122033,760,152864,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-259496","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-flagship-centre","11":"tag-kevin-sinfield","12":"tag-leeds-hospitals-charity","13":"tag-leeds-rhinos","14":"tag-leeds-teaching-hospitals-nhs-trust","15":"tag-mnd-association","16":"tag-motor-neurone-disease","17":"tag-mrs-burrow","18":"tag-rob-burrow","19":"tag-rugby","20":"tag-seacroft-hospital","21":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}