Considered a British rugby legend, he won eight Super League grand finals with Leeds Rhinos. Three years ago, Rob Burrow received a cruel diagnosis. The doctors told him that he had a year, two years at the most to live.
Photo: Profimedia
Rob Burrow in January 2020.
In December 2019, he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. It affects the nerves that control the muscles. The symptoms of a rare but all the more serious disease worsen over time.
The father of three told the Mirror that he is alive thanks to his wife Lindsey. Forty-year-old Burrow can no longer walk or talk and communicates through an eye-controlled keyboard. He continues to fight, even if he does not shy away from the saddest subject.
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“He keeps telling me, ‘Find someone else, you were young.’ However, no one else will be here. No one can take his place. They say love at first sight is a cliché, but I think it’s true,” Lindsey, a year younger, tells the same source.
The couple can still smile and joke. In footage for the BBC, the wife helps the former tough player into a wheelchair, into bed, during physiotherapy, supports him in the pool, takes him to his children’s sporting events… She takes care of her husband with unwavering patience.
“I couldn’t have asked for better help than from my beautiful wife Lindsey. I know the saying goes in marriage – I’ll be there in sickness and in health.
Well, I didn’t know that the disease would show up so soon. She is my superhero and I couldn’t be alive without her help. I love her very much.”
“I’m lucky to be Rob’s wife – despite the situation we’re in. Would I like to change things? Of course I would like to, but I can’t. So we have to make the most of every moment we spend together,” responds his wife, his childhood sweetheart.
The couple married in 2006, and Lindsey says they had the perfect life. At the same time, in retrospect, he thinks that the signs of the disease could have been noticed before he retired from playing in 2017.
What happened was that he forgot that he had scored. And the neighbor asked him if he had been drinking because of his nonsense.
At the time of his active career, he was one of the shortest rugby players (165 cm) and often had to face a large number of opponents.
“They told him he wouldn’t succeed in this game, but he did it. He played at the highest level and represented his country,” added Lindsey.
“I refuse to talk about the end of my life, I am determined and look at all the reasons I have to live for,” emphasizes Burrow.
In his words, he will “fight to the last breath” to see his children – ten-year-old Macy, seven-year-old Maya and three-year-old Jackson – grow up.
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