Leeds Rhinos fans put best foot forward for Rob Burrow and MNDA

The Rhinos legend ran seven marathons in a week for his former team-mate and friend, Rob Burrow, with donations surpassing £2.5m.

It has led to numerous people getting out to raise funds, including Billy Lumsden and his four friends, Karl Cassar, Matt Whitehead, Adam Jameson and Lewis Hirst.

The quintet are all from Leeds and currently live in West Yorkshire. Their initial goal was to raise £777 by running seven miles for seven days.

However, they have been blown away by the support they have received as they have currently raised more than four times their initial goal.

“After what Sir Kev did, we took a little bit of inspiration from that,” Lumsden said.

“One of the lads suggested that we give it a go. There are variations of it, there are seven kilometres for seven days and things like that.

“We thought seven miles a day would be a good test for us. Not all of us are massively keen runners.

“We wanted to raise a bit of money for Rob Burrow and the MNDA as well.”

The quintet grew up watching Burrow and Sinfield during one of the Rhinos’ most successful eras, which included a treble-winning season in 2015.

They feel their fundraising will go some way to paying back Burrow for the joy he gave them and all other Leeds fans during his illustrious playing career.

Lumsden added: “We are all big Leeds Rhinos fans. It has been devastating, not just as a Leeds fan, but as someone who has grown up watching Rob and loving everything he has done.

“The amount of memories he has given us at Headingley and Old Trafford, that has been inspirational. It has been so devastating seeing the effect the diagnosis has had on him.

“It is something we are all very passionate about. We wanted to give it a go and we knew that doing this together, that we could give it a really good go.

“We hit the £3,000-mark at the start of this week, we only set out to raise £777 and some of the lads were skeptical of raising the bar too high.

“We are really taken aback by the support we have had while doing it and blown away by how generous everybody has been.

“It is not about us, it is about the MNDA. This is something people are suffering from every day.

“We just want to raise a bit more awareness and raise money for a life-changing cause. As well as that, we want to do it for Rob who has gifted us with so many happy memories.

“We felt like we were doing something to repay all the years of happiness he has given us.”

Doing the challenge as a group eased the mental strain of running seven miles a day.

“Going out for a run is hard; for me it is not the physical aspect but mentally I find it tough to want to go out for a run,” added Lumsden.

“It is mentally draining. All of us were working so you are gearing up towards 6.30pm in an evening and you have got to mentally prepare yourself.

“It is mentally tough and, realistically, I don’t think we could have done it as individuals. I think being together helped us and inspired us to complete it.”

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