Kevin Sinfield hints at further three fundraisers for Rob Burrow and MND Community

Friday will mark the starting date for Kevin Sinfield’s most recent and most ambitious challenge, the ex-Leeds Rhinos captain to take on his ‘Seven in Seven in Seven’ challenge to raise money for those battling Motor Neurone Disease.

This will be Sinfield’s fourth major challenge and comes just less than three years after confirmation that former Rhinos’ star Rob Burrow had been diagnosed with MND.

Sinfield appeared alongside Burrow live on BBC Breakfast during Burrow’s announcement in December 2020, and he’s stood by his side ever since in an unbelievable act of brotherhood, raising both funds and awareness to combat MND.

Previous challenges have all revolved around Burrow, and more often than not his shirt number during his time with the Rhinos, number seven.

Initially the first event saw Sinfield and his team run 100 miles in seven days, but of course they ran a further mile in part on account of getting lost but it’s now been turned into the team’s motto of ‘going the extra mile’.

Sinfield then completed his Seven in Seven challenge, seven marathons in seven days, culminating in him appearing at Old Trafford for the World Cup final last November to rapturous applause.

Event number three saw both Sinfield and Burrow take part in the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon earlier this year, with the emotional scenes of Sinfield carrying his best mate over the line making headline news and even the toughest of men shed a tear.

As such that brings us onto challenge number four, the ‘Seven in Seven in Seven’ challenge. It’s an extended version of last year’s mammoth task in that it sees Sinfield and his team run each marathon in a different city, with all seven selected due to their connection with MND.

The route will see Sinfield leave Headingley and head for York Minster on day one before heading to Cardiff for day two and Birmingham on day three.

Day four sees Sinfield head north to Edinburgh in honour of Doddie weir, before a trip over the Irish Sea takes him to Dublin for day five.

Brighton is the destination for day six before the final day sets off from Twickenham and takes Sinfield around London, with full maps available for each leg here.

It will be an incredible task to undertake but it likely won’t be the last, Sinfield revealing to the press that there’s no point in stopping now.

Having referenced the Rocky films previously, Sinfield stated: “I weren’t that keen on Rocky V but after we’ve done the fourth one we’re not far off seven are we?

“We’re just over halfway so perhaps we should just keep going and we’ve got a lot to fight for.”

Sinfield had spoken with the press on Friday reiterating just how much there was to fight for, eluding to the lack of time that those with MND have as he called on the government to fulfil their £50 million promise.

He also asked the question “why should we stop”, emotionally stating: “The plan was to do three but why would we stop? Why would we stop? Like, we haven’t got a cure, we still feel we can make a better impact on people’s lives who have got MND,  we feel we can help some more, so why would we stop?”

He continued, adding: “As I’ve said before I’m in this now and whilst my knees keep going then I’ll keep trying to do my bit, and even then, when my knees won’t work like they should, we’ll find different ways of trying to raise money and awareness and try and change the way people feel about this community.

“We’ve been a part of something that’s been pretty powerful over the last couple of years and we’re massively humbled by it.”