'I feel I'm so lucky to have been Rob's wife'

If I'm completely honest. I don't know if it has fully hit me yet," admits Lindsey Burrow. "But it's been a tough eight months since Rob's passing."

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Lindsey's husband, Leeds Rhinos rugby hero Rob, died last June aged 41. When he was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 2019, he was only given 18 months to live.

But Rob faced his diagnosis with characteristic determination and stoicism, and it's that bravery that Lindsey is channelling as she tries to come to terms with her devastating loss, while supporting their three children Macy, 13, Maya, nine, and Jackson, six, through their own grief.

MND is a neurological condition causing muscle weakness and impacting movement, breathing and swallowing. So within months of his diagnosis, Rob was in a wheelchair and communicating via an audio speech app.

"Simple things have been tough - coming home from work and expecting a message from Rob, or not having his machine say, 'Can I have a coffee?" says Lindsey.

"Or asking the kids, 'Have you had a good day?" Lindsey is a physiotherapist and her career in healthcare meant she immediately knew the implications of Rob's diagnosis.

"MND is a living death," she says.

But Rob was determined to make the most of every day that remained to him, and the family followed his lead.

STRENGTH

"He was a tower of strength, and his positivity rippled through the whole family. Had Rob approached it differently than I think it would've been a different story," says Lindsey.

It was Rob who encouraged her to tell their story in her memoir Take Care - and she found the process cathartic. "It's been very, very therapeutic. Talking about it really helped, it was part of the grieving process." But Take Care is also "a love story" that tells the tale of their romance. They were "childhood sweethearts" who met aged 14 when Lindsey attended dance classes with Rob's older sisters.