Former Sunderland striker Marcus Stewart has heaped praise on Kevin Sinfield for his fundraising efforts for Motor Neurone Disease. The ex-Leeds Rhinos captain has run around 40 miles for seven successive days and completed his challenge at Old Trafford yesterday afternoon.
Stewart spent three seasons on Wearside scoring 31 goals in over 100 appearances, and was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease earlier this year, but says he's currently fine despite a problem with his left hand and arm.
"I'm fine," Stewart told BBC Breakfast, speaking roadside at Kevin Sinfield's Ultra 7 in 7 fund raising. The symptoms are pretty slow, you know, I've got a problem with my left hand and my left arm. The grip has gone in my hand and my left arm has weight loss but otherwise I'm pretty good.
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"I've a few twitches over my body, but I'm good. I can walk and talk and I feel pretty lucky if I'm honest."
When asked about Sinfield's challenge, Stewart said: "God - it's been on the news every day hasn't it? It's hard to get away from it if I'm honest with you, but we do check every morning. My wife is normally in bed next to me kind of showing me what's going on, showing me what the total has been.
"It's great that it's just reached a million as well as we're here. The crowds that have been turning up are always inspiring.
"Of course it's important but Kevin is a beacon of hope. That's what he is to a lot of us. He's doing his best with his mate Rob as well, along with his mates who are running with him.
"A million as it stands, I think it's five million that he's raised himself with previous events that he's done. The awareness is great, the timing of it, he doesn't do it very often but when he does he does it big so that can only be the right way forward."
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