{"id":545294,"date":"2026-04-22T21:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T21:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/545294\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T21:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T21:01:08","slug":"lewis-moody-picking-up-baton-left-by-doddie-weir-with-mnd-fundraising-cycle-ride-lewis-moody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/545294\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Moody \u2018picking up baton\u2019 left by Doddie Weir with MND fundraising cycle ride | Lewis Moody"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former England captain Lewis Moody<\/a> has said he is \u201cpicking up the baton\u201d left by Doddie Weir after announcing plans to lead a 500-mile, seven-day cycling challenge this summer to raise funds for the fight against motor neurone disease.<\/p>\n

Moody will be joined by many of his fellow 2003 World Cup winners, including Jonny Wilkinson, Mike Tindall and Ben Kay, as well as his teenage sons on a journey from Newcastle to the Allianz Stadium in Twickenham, with all proceeds going to the My Name\u20195 Doddie Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The former Leicester, Bath and British & Irish Lions forward became the latest retired player to be diagnosed with MND, which he revealed last October<\/a>, with the disease having claimed the lives of Weir and the former rugby league international Rob Burrow in the past four years.<\/p>\n

The My Name\u20195 Doddie Foundation has raised more than \u00a323.5m to fund MND research, and Moody has committed to continuing the former Scotland international\u2019s legacy in fighting a disease that results in six new diagnoses each day in the UK alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really proud to be aligning my name with Doddie, who was a force of nature as a character,\u201d Moody said. \u201cI feel like in many ways I\u2019m being brought off the bench to take that baton forward and to try and get this job done. That\u2019s an easy thing to say, but a very difficult thing to achieve. Whether it\u2019s in my lifetime or not, I intend to give my energy and time to a cause that will produce outcomes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I speak to specialists there\u2019s a lot of hope and developments in fighting this disease. I don\u2019t know if that would have been the case when those guys were diagnosed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lewis XV\u2019s challenge will begin on Sunday 14 June at Newcastle, the most northerly Prem club, where Weir played for seven years and where Moody sealed the first of seven domestic titles with Leicester, before continuing to his old clubs Leicester, Bath and Bracknell and concluding at Twickenham, where he will deliver the match ball for the Prem final on Saturday 20 June.<\/p>\n

Lewis Moody in action against Georgia at the 2003 Rugby World Cup. Photograph: Greg Wood\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

With more than a dozen former internationals signed up Moody is looking forward to enjoying some healthy competition between the riders, and Tindall has been identified as the man to beat.\u201c\u2018Tins\u2019 is surprisingly fit still,\u201d Moody said. \u201cHe will 100% be up there. I quite like the idea that there will be enough competition to get us through it. I\u2019m sure there will be stints where people decide they need to put the hammer down and blow off some steam.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen Wilco [Wilkinson] on a bike, so he\u2019s probably hired a group of people to get him ready! I dread to think how he\u2019s going to turn up looking. Is there a bike strong enough to withstand the power that he can put through it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Moody is in a positive frame of mind six months after his shock diagnosis, with the organising and training for the ride giving him renewed focus. \u201cI\u2019m good at the moment,\u201d he said. \u201cThe only noticeable change is in my hand. The other day I noticed a slight difference in my finger strength, opening a bottle top, holding a fork, cutting food. Those little things are a challenge mentally when they present themselves, but within a day you can move past it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be in this position, of course, but it does sometimes feel like a strange privilege. I\u2019ve been given the opportunity to have a really clear vision of what I want to do with my time now. And that is to spend it with the people I love. And doing the things I love, and doing it with purpose. Being a part of this campaign gives me more purpose than anything. It brings a smile to my face.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on the Lewis XV ride visit uk.emma-live.com\/LewisMoodyCycle<\/a>, and www.myname5doddie.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former England captain Lewis Moody has said he is \u201cpicking up the baton\u201d left by Doddie Weir…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-545294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}