A pioneering new facility dedicated to Motor Neurone Disease (MND) care, research, and support has officially opened in Leeds, fulfilling the dream of late rugby league star Rob Burrow.
Hailed as a “transformative moment in care”, the Rob Burrow Centre for MND at Seacroft Hospital welcomed his family and supporters on Monday for its inauguration.
Burrow’s son, Jackson, had the honour of cutting the ribbon, surrounded by his mother, Lindsey, sisters Macy and Maya, and his grandparents.
Dozens of supporters who helped bring the project to fruition also attended the ceremony.
The centre was a long-held aspiration of the Leeds Rhinos legend and his consultant, Dr Agam Jung, who joined the family in wielding the scissors.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Lindsey Burrow expressed her profound pride.
“It’s a really special day,” she said.
“Just incredibly proud to be here, to have so many of the staff that work at the centre and the patients here, it’s such an honour to be here.”
She added: “This is the flagship centre, but hopefully other centres will open. This is the first of its kind in the UK. To have this centre here in Leeds is incredibly special in Rob’s name.”
Her daughter Macy said: “It’s just incredible, and we’re all really proud, and I know my dad would be immensely proud.”
The creation of the centre was made possible by a £6.8m fundraising campaign, spearheaded by Leeds Hospitals Charity and significantly bolstered by Burrow’s friend and former Leeds Rhinos teammate, Kevin Sinfield.
Over 17,000 donors contributed to the cause, with patients, their families, clinical specialists, and the wider MND community actively involved in its design.
Dr Jung, a consultant neurologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and the centre’s director, said that the facility embodies Burrow’s determination to ensure patients are treated as individuals, not merely conditions.
“It has been five years since the germination of the idea to build this centre – a legacy of Rob’s strength, his family’s support, and the compassion of an entire community,” she said.
“I’m so grateful to so many people who have worked together to make this dream a reality. I was very pleased when Rob fully embraced the Leeds MND Service ethos of ‘Living in the Now’. He wanted to leave a legacy for people to be able to do so, and this has spread across the MND community. All 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.”
Esther Wakeman, chief executive of Leeds Hospitals Charity, reflected on the overwhelming public response. “When 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,” she said.
“In just three years, we were able to reach the £6.8m target. We 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. He has inspired so many people.”
Sally Hughes, director of services and partnerships at the MND Association, affirmed the centre’s significance, calling it “a transformative moment in care for people with MND in Leeds and across West Yorkshire”.
She added: “This purpose-built facility, inspired by our late patron, will provide a supportive and compassionate environment for everyone affected by MND – for the person diagnosed and their family too, which is so important when facing such a life-changing disease.”
Burrow died at the age of 41 after a four-and-a-half-year battle with MND. The ground-breaking ceremony for the centre went ahead on the day his death was announced, with his family expressing confidence that he “would be looking down and smiling”.
