Powerful pictures show how Lindsey Burrow takes care of her husband and rugby league legend Rob Burrow.
The former sports star, who has motor neurone disease, is being cared for by his devoted wife Lindsey after the devastating diagnosis. The pair will star in a new ITV documentary on Thursday, Lindsey and Rob: Living with MND, showcasing their day-to-day life and struggles.
Lindsey said: " You just want to do what you can, while you can, for as long as you can. He’s my husband, I want to care for him." Lindsey has been with Rob for 17 years. The pair have three young children and are teenage sweethearts, reports Mirror Online.
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Ravaged as 7st Rob, 40, now is, four years after his MND diagnosis in 2019, the task is still Herculean for Lindsey, 40. Yet she persists, lifting and carrying him from bed to chair, chair to car, refusing carers and equipment.
It is only recently she moved Rob’s bed downstairs because she could no longer manage the stairs safely. Lindsey said: "While I’m physically able, I will continue to do that for Rob, and I know he’d do the same for me,” she says, speaking matter-of-factly.
"We haven’t really discussed the option of carers. We don’t want stairlifts, hoists and things, for me it can become quite clinical. You just want to do what you can, while you can, for as long as you can. He’s my husband, I want to care for him. You say those vows, in sickness and in health, that’s what you want to do."
Lindsey, who is a physiotherapist who has worked with MND patients for years, added: "He’ll often say, ‘Thank you for looking after me, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you doing these things’. I know how grateful he is.
"It’s not easy being a carer, but when I look at what Rob has had taken from him I’ve nothing to moan about."
For the superstar Leeds Rhinos and England player, an intensely private man, it was a courageous call to be so open about the degenerative condition, which affects nerves in the brain and spinal cord. Thanks to his mission, his and Lindsey’s tireless fundraising, and that of Kevin’s, millions have been raised for MND research and care.
"Rob will always be a hero in our eyes," says Lindsey, who met the "shy teenager" aged 15.
Most will disagree after watching a new ITV documentary, Lindsey and Rob: Living with MND, which airs tomorrow. Although she certainly runs around. While working one day a week as a NHS physiotherapist – Rob’s parents take on his care that day – she spends the rest of her hours as full-time carer and mum to Macy, 11, Maya, seven, and Jackson, three, at their home in Castleford, West Yorks.
She even completed the Leeds Marathon and has entered the Yorkshire Marathon, in October. "Rob said he couldn’t be more proud," she smiles.
Rob was initially given two years to live, and today refuses to hear a prognosis. Lindsey explains her husband has now lost all ability to talk, and retains no voluntary movement control, except with his eyes, which he uses to spell messages on a screen.
He struggles to swallow, so she must feed him only liquidised food, and some nights uses a ventilator to help reduce high levels of carbon dioxide in his body. The build-up in MND sufferers whose breathing muscles struggle to function, can lead to death.
"I don’t think he can really get any worse," Lindsey admits. She has coaxed him to speak briefly about his end-of-life wishes.
She added: "I know roughly, he knows what type of music he’d like. He’s a big Michael Jackson fan. Rob has said I’m still young, I should find someone else. He just wants us to be happy. But he’s still here, still fighting and I know I upset him when I ask those questions."
Yet he rarely shows fear or depression. “He doesn’t confide in me about struggling,” admits Lindsey. She recalls his tears after diagnosis. But a couple of weeks later he visited Doddie Weir, the Scottish rugby union player also diagnosed with MND, who died last year.
"It was a turning point, he instilled so much hope and inspiration," she says. "Rob came back, saying, ‘Right, we tackle this head on, no more tears.'"
Lindsey doesn’t allow him to see her upset, either. "Crying is not going to change the situation, I’d rather make happy memories and spend time happy with Rob," she insists.
"I look at the legacy Rob has created, and I hope my children will think, ‘Look what Daddy did’, hopefully it will help us through difficult times."
Her youngest Jackson, aged one when Rob was diagnosed, struggles to understand. "He will ask, ‘When will Daddy not have MND?'" she reveals. The girls grasp more. In the documentary, Macy speaks of her daddy "taking his last breath".
Lindsey added: "Rob is still the man I married, he’s just in a body that doesn’t function,” she says. “I married for life, we’d that vision of growing old together. Our time will be cut short but that doesn’t stop us enjoying that time."
Lindsey and Rob: Living with MND, will air on Thursday 8.30pm on ITV1 and ITVX
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