I’m recording my voice for the kids before MND takes it away... things like ‘I love you’ & ‘stop doing that!’
Gale is determined to emulate boyhood hero on his return to Leeds
His gravelly, strained and occasionally slurred voice is the only obvious sign of Rob Burrow’s devastating Motor Neurone Disease. The rugby league legend knows every word might soon be snatched from him by the cruel condition.
So, in spare moments, he’s preparing by recording messages for his family which they’ll one day hear through a communication aid.
Rob, 37, says: “My voice will go first, so I’m recording a few important phrases on my phone like, ‘I love you’. And for my kids, ‘stop doing that’ and ‘get down’, because they’re normal things I say as a dad. I also need lots of laughter.”
For a man who only weeks ago was given just one to two years to live, Rob’s positivity is astonishing.
After the bleak diagnosis on December 12, Rob confesses he did endure 10 days of feeling “a bit down”.
Then a meeting with ex-Scottish rugby union international Doddie Weir, who has been living with MND since 2016, transformed his outlook.
“Meeting Doddie changed everything. I saw how happy and jokey he was, how he took the Mick out of everyone around him. And I thought, ‘I want to be my own version of that’.
“So when I came home, me and my wife Lindsey decided we’d have a no-cry policy at home. Because when I see Lindsey upset, I get upset. And neither of us want the kids to be upset.”
Even before he retired as a player in 2017, former Leeds Rhinos and Great Britain scrum-half Rob always prioritised family over sport.
Lindsey was his first thought the instant he heard it was MND – and not a side effect of pain relief for a shoulder injury – which was distorting his speech.
The pair first dated aged 15, married in 2006 and have three children – Macy, eight, Maya, four, and Jackson, who turned one a few days after his dad’s diagnosis.
“As soon as the consultant said, ‘I’m sorry to tell you’, my first instinct was to see if Lindsey was OK. Most husbands would feel that. It was tougher on her. I thought, ‘I’m glad I have this disease and not her’.
“MND is not the worst thing in the world – your kids getting poorly is the worst thing. I’m not trying to portray myself as a hero, because any man would gladly take any pain from their wife and kids and give it to himself.”
A career in rugby has given Rob, who made 493 appearances for Leeds Rhinos over 17 years, Kevlar-tough humour which came to the fore as soon as a friend texted to ask how he’d got on at the appointment.
Rob says: “At our training ground, we have a big mural wall with plates
MND looks impossible to fight but I’ll be swinging. I’m going to be here for a while yet
ROB BURROW ON TACKLING INCURABLE DISEASE
for all the people connected to the club who’ve died – kit men, caterers, groundsmen.
“So I texted back, ‘bad news. Got MND. Save a space for my plate’. My mate replied, ‘d***head’. And that’s normal. Taking the Mick is how I cope with things, so I’m going to carry on.”
Even the task of telling his children was made easier with humour.
“We sat them down and said, ‘we’ve got something to tell you. Daddy’s not very well, but he’s got a lot of really good people looking after him’.
“And Maya said, ‘why are you telling us this? It’s boring’. So we all started laughing – it was the best thing ever.”
But, of course, it hasn’t all been laughs. There have been dark times, especially in the first 10 days.
“I’m not a crier,” says Rob. “But when I was feeding Jackson at night, alone and quiet in the dark, I kept thinking, ‘I want to see him grow up and take him to rugby’. Or I’d put Maya on my chest and just cuddle her. And I must admit, a tear dropped.
“Now I tell myself I will see them grow. Maybe sports training and all that teaching about positive imagery, helps. So
I imagine being in a villa in Florida with my kids, just like I used to imagine running through a defence.” But there are signs of his MND, a rapidly progressing disease that affects the brain and spinal cord.
A constant rippling in his arm muscles flickers through the night and a slight shake sometimes sees him spill his coffee or take longer to get the key in his front door. So mundane things have become cherished moments.
He says: “I’m still annoying Lindsey, she’s still telling me off for being messy and not taking the bins out.
“And I love that things are normal. Every day, when the girls come out from school, they run to me, try to tackle me, then rifle through pockets because I hide sweets there. “That makes me so happy. “And now that Jackson is having bottles, feeding him is a really special time for me.” Recent medical appointments have buoyed Rob.
He has agreed to trial new treatments and overhauled his diet.
And he feels sure he has much longer than his two-year prognosis.
“I’m not going to be one of those stats,” he says. “I’m not going to take this lightly.
“I didn’t know I was this mentally strong, but looking back, I always fought hard against adversity. I got my career in rugby the hard way because I was always told I wasn’t big enough.
“I had to find a way of impacting the game rather than using brute strength or being big and physical. So I played to my strengths of speed and agility.
“I’ve always run away from big guys. And it’s almost like that at the moment. MND looks bigger and impossible to fight, but I’ll be swinging. I’m going to be here for a while yet.”
LUKE GALE has always been aware of the significance of the Leeds No.7 shirt, but never more so than this season.
Gale grew up watching from the Headingley terraces before joining the club’s scholarship scheme as a youngster.
But his path to the first team was always likely to be blocked by a rising star six years his senior in Rob Burrow.
Before leaving the Rhinos to find his own route to the top, Gale remembers travelling with the team to a reserves game as a teenager and marvelling at the ability of Burrow (above) and halfback partner Danny McGuire.
Now back at his boyhood club after two injury-hit years at Castleford, the 2017 Steve Prescott Man of Steel and England international will pull on the shirt he always coveted in the new Super League season that kicks off tonight.
And following Burrow’s devastating motor neurone disease diagnosis and the swell of support that has followed, Gale is more determined than ever to do it justice.
“When you think of the No.7 at Leeds Rhinos, Rob Burrow comes to your mind,” said Gale.
“I’ve played against him all my career and seen how good, tough and resilient he’s been.
“I can remember being in the academy and they used to let two of us travel with and go and watch the under-21s every week.
“I went on the bus with them, I must only have been about 15 at the time.
“Rob and Danny McGuire were the halfbacks and I think they scored four tries between them.
“I can remember thinking then I had some work to do to get to their level and as it transpired, I moved on from Leeds.
“The way it turned out, with Rob being the No.7 for so many years and me taking a different path, I’m happy with that.
“I don’t think I’ll get to achieve even a quarter of the things he’s done in his career – eight Grand
Finals is unreal, unprecedented. But if I can be half the player he’s been for Leeds, I’d be a happy guy and I’m sure the fans would be happy.
“If I wear the seven jersey and show as much pride in it as he did, then I’ll be satisfied.”
Gale (below) has personal motivation for succeeding in 2020, after being restricted to just 15 games over the last two years due to knee and Achilles injuries. He added: “In 2017 I went from winning Man of Steel, getting to the Grand Final and playing in a World Cup – it was the height of a career.
“But you find out more about yourself in adversity than in those highs. As good as ’17 was, I’ve probably learned more about myself and my character in the two years since.
“In 2018 it was stop-start – I picked up the injury, came back and wasn’t right. I’ve had to be patient and there’s been days when I wondered if I’d ever get back. “In 2020 I want to put that behind me and have a massive year.”