I felt a bomb drop when I heard Rob’s diagnosis – but his utterly selfless reaction stunned me, says Lindsey Burrow

RUGBY league hero Rob Burrow spent four years battling motor neurone disease while courageously raising awareness of the condition and more than £20million for charity. Yesterday, in an exclusive interview with The Sun, his widow Lindsey told how she and kids Macy, 13, Maya, nine, and six-year-old Jackson, made forever memories with the Leeds Rhino player in his last hours. Today, in extracts from her new book, Take Care, Lindsey recalls the dark days after Rob’s death, and how moving it was as thousands turned out to pay respects.

This was the day our lives were blown apart. We had just moved into our dream home in Pontefract and life seemed perfect. Macy was eight and dreamed of playing the lead in a West End musical while Maya, just four, fancied becoming a movie star. Jackson was about to turn one. I knew Rob secretly hoped Jackson would follow him into rugby league and play for Leeds Rhinos. Rob played almost 500 games for Leeds and won eight Super League Grand Finals and 18 international caps before retiring after a winning Grand Final in 2017 and taking up a coaching job.

We had an appointment at the Nuffield Hospital in Leeds with neurologist Dr Jeremy Cosgrove after Rob began slurring words. He had been exhausted for a few months and his mum Irene and former teammates had also noticed a slur in his speech. I became acutely aware of Rob’s speech problem when I heard how hard it was for him to say the word “solicitor” while buying our home. Of course, I knew Rob wasn’t indestructible. I had seen him take brutal knocks over the course of his career, saw the impact on his body, and it was a relief when he played his last game.

But he was a little superman. When he held me close and told me everything would be all right, it was easy to believe him. He was convinced the occasional slurs in his speech were a side effect of painkillers he was taking to cope with an old shoulder injury. As we walked into Dr Cosgrove’s office, I noticed he’d been joined by a nurse. He looked steadily at Rob, maintaining eye contact, and told Rob he believed he had motor neurone disease.

Rob looked at him blankly because he had no idea of the severity of this sentence. It was very different for me. As soon as I heard the words “motor neurone disease”, it was as if a bomb had fallen from the sky and blown me apart. I knew our glorious life together was over. I found it difficult to look at Rob, the man I loved, because I understood what it meant. Rob would be buried alive in his own body. He would be trapped and paralysed beneath the rubble of MND.

Soon, he would no longer be able to dress or feed himself or go to the toilet on his own. Even while his brain remained alert, a time would come when he could no longer talk or move. He would eventually struggle to breathe and swallow. An oxygen mask and intravenous feeding tube would be the only ways to keep him alive — if such an existence can be called a life. On the walk to our car, Rob put his arm around me and said: “Thank God it’s me and not you or the children.” He didn’t say: “Why me?” There was no pity.

On the way home, Rob hit the speaker-phone button to call his parents Geoff and Irene. Geoff, in particular, had such pride in the way his tiny son ripped up presumptions that he could never become a professional rugby league player. The shock in Geoff’s voice at the devastating news filled the car. We heard him talking to Irene and she started crying. Geoff was so distraught it sounded as if he had collapsed.

Rob’s sister Claire came on the line and he told them everything was going to be OK. We then focused on the children and agreed we would not say anything to them until a few days after Jackson’s birthday party on Saturday. MOTOR neurone disease (MND) is a rare condition that affects the brain and nerves, according to the NHS. It causes weakness that gets worse over time, and there is currently no cure for MND.

Up to 5,000 adults in the UK are affected by the condition, with one in 300 at risk during their lifetimes, data from Brain Tumour Research states. It slowly robs patients of the ability to walk, talk and eat, although every sufferer is different. Celebrities who have been diagnosed with the condition include English rugby league player Rob Burrow and the former Bradford City footballer Stephen Darby, both of whom had to retire from their sporting careers early.

Many people associate motor neurone disease (MND) with the scientist Stephen Hawking, who lived with the condition for more than 50 years. There are many form of MND, which is an umbrella term. Some have a life expectancy of just a few months, while other forms of the disease don't affect lifespan. It is usually diagnosed in people over the age of 50, and men are at more risk than women. But many people outside of this are affected.