I first interviewed Rob Burrow in April 2021 . Rob, by then, could no longer talk and, in his wheelchair, he could barely move. Motor neurone disease had made him a prisoner in his own body.
I was anxious before we began because it seemed an impossible task. Rob, however, had spent much of his life proving that he could overcome preconceptions. He was the rugby league giant who, despite being 5ft 5in tall and weighing a shade over 10 stone, had played almost 500 games for Leeds Rhinos , and won eight Super League championships and 18 international caps.
He dazzled and tackled opponents who were often double his weight and stood more than a foot taller than him. Rob Burrow, former Leeds scrum-half, dies at 41, years after MND diagnosis Read more From his earliest junior years right the way through to all those grand finals, Rob had ripped up doubts that he was too small to make it. Instead, he had left a huge mark on rugby league and become one of the most cherished players in Britain.
So Rob soon showed me how we might work together. He used a device called Eyegaze to answer my questions. Rob would pick out individual letters on a monitor and, by using his eyes, build words and then sentences.
When he was ready to reply he would turn to me and his wife, Lindsey, with a smile. Lindsey and I knew that it was time for us to stop talking. In the sudden silence Rob would use his eyes to play a recording of his reply.
It felt like magic to hear his voice, and that unvarnished Castl.
