'I met Rob Burrow days after his MND diagnosis - he was only just getting started'

It was just a couple of weeks after receiving the devastating MND diagnosis that rugby legend Rob Burrow and wife Lindsey first welcomed me into their home.

It was January 2020 and here I was being made a cup of tea by the diminutive figure I had watched in awe from the terraces as he helped his beloved Leeds Rhinos – my hometown team - conquer the world.

Rob’s speech was already starting to fail but he was desperate to introduce me to his wife Lindsey – his childhood sweetheart who was giving the Daily Express her first ever interview.

With their son Jackson, the couple’s third child, a recently-turned one-year-old crawling around the floor as we chatted, Rob told me in his gravelly voice how he had already started making audio recordings telling Jackson and sisters Macy and Maya phrases such as “I love you”, “get down”, “stop doing that”, - everyday dad comments – because he wanted to be “surrounded by the sound of love and laughter” as the disease struck hold.

It would be the first of many times Rob Burrow would challenge my ability to keep tears from dropping onto my notepad.

Doctors had warned he was likely to live between one to two years but Rob vowed to me he would outlive that prognosis. Four and a half years later he was true to his word, no doubt helped by the phenomenal support of Lindsey and their children, and their surrounding close-knit family including Rob's parents Geoff and Irene, and sisters Claire and Joanne.

At that early stage both Rob and physiotherapist Lindsey, knew what was coming with the illness, there was no blind optimism. They had already spoken with Scottish rugby union legend Doddie Weir whose unbridled positivity was accompanied by a forthright explanation of his own plight. But at that stage neither had any idea of what a massive impact Rob would have on MND awareness around the world – or the millions he would help raise. He simply wanted to try and help others.

He said at the time: "I'm aware I have a public profile and I now need to raise awareness of the disease to help people who are not as lucky. The postman or labourer who live alone and suddenly get the same diagnosis. I need to help those people as well as myself and my own family.

"There is currently only one drug available and that has been around for 28 years. There must be more we can do."

Two days later the first case of Covid 19 was confirmed in the UK and weeks later the country went into lockdown.

A planned Easter meet-up with the Burrows had to be cancelled but I remained in text contact with Rob. The next time we physically met was mid-2021 and he was reliant on his specially-adapted wheelchair and needed a computer to talk but he was ecstatic he had fulfilled his promise of transforming the national conversation about MND.

I confess I feared that would be the last time I saw him alive - little did I know he was only just getting started.