KEVIN Sinfield admits he may be like ‘Humpty Dumpty’ as he goes through his latest physical challenge.
But the reaction of Rob Burrow and the motor neurone disease community makes it worth it.
The rugby league legend, currently England RU’s defence coach, will add millions more to his already huge fundraising total with a fourth feat, his Ultra 7 in 7 in 7.
From Friday, he will complete marathons, plus an extra mile to show how far people caring for those living with the condition go, every day in different cities across the UK and Ireland in the name of his pal and former Leeds Rhinos team-mate.
But he is willing to end up like the nursery rhyme character after a lack of proper preparation because of World Cup commitments.
Sinfield, who knew what he would be doing about the time of this year's Six Nations, said: “In my mind, it’s been trying to get my body into shape so I can run for four hours a day, then spend the next 20 trying to put Humpty Dumpty together again!
“In that time, there’ll be some travel and disruption, which means nutrition and recovery won’t be perfect. But life for people with MND and their families isn’t perfect.
“I was at the World Cup for two months, before that I was in camp for three. In terms of long runs, up until the start of November, I hadn’t done one for five.
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“But while there are 1,000 reasons why we shouldn’t go again, there’s one big one why we should – Rob and this beautiful community.
“And while the plan was to do three challenges, why would we stop? We haven’t got a cure. We feel we can help some more. There’ll come a point where I can’t run any more but I’ll find another way of banging that drum.
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“Rob thinks I’m crackers but I’ve been out at 5.30am in Saddleworth running, I first went two days after getting back from France.
“It’s been important to make our training as tough, dark and horrible as we can. Running around Saddleworth at 5.30am on a Wednesday in the rain isn’t all it’s cracked out to be!”
While Sinfield is going through the pain barrier to raise funds and awareness, the Government has put £35 million of the £50 million it pledged towards research and treatment in search of a cure.
But that is not enough, some of those current living with MND may not see the results.
He added: “It’s more the time. People with MND don’t have time to wait. As we saw with Covid-19, if you throw enough money at something, you can get a cure.
“But whether that money had all been released or not, we’d still be getting ready to run.
“That’s for finding a cure and drugs, 50 per cent of what we raise goes to that human side – that helps people, that makes their journey a bit better.”
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