Swimming challenge for Rob Burrow surpasses funding target

It seems that we’re treated to daily doses of inspiring news from the world of rugby league.

Our great game constantly seems to be coming together to take on injustices. We saw fans and players band together for Mose Masoe, referee Joe Stearne is running from Lancashire to Yorkshire in January to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Research and of course so many people have done their bit for Rob Burrow.

Whether it was Kevin Sinfield’s two eye watering challenges which raised £5 million in the fight against Motor Neurone Disease between them or Martyn Clarke’s gruelling seven half Ironman Triathlons in seven days, so much has been done to fight MND since Burrow was diagnosed two years ago.

Every day it seems someone somewhere is doing something to help raise money and awareness and this month David Merrick has been doing his bit for the former Leeds scrumhalf.

Merrick is a former referee and has known Burrow personally for some time. He was desperate to do something to help Burrow’s fight against this awful disease so has taken to swimming a mile a day for over a month to raise money and awareness.

His challenge began on November 1st and is set to conclude with one final mile on Christmas Eve taking him past 60 miles of front crawl over the course of nearly two months. This will see him do 3840 lengths of a pool in Pontefract in total.

Nearly at the end of his challenge, Merrick’s £7,000 target has now been surpassed but with just under a week left to go, Merrick is hoping to continue raising money up until Christmas Eve and you can still donate to this amazing cause here.