Former rugby league player Rob Burrow's battle with motor neurone disease (MND) is the subject of a new half-an-hour BBC Two documentary film and shows the sportsman and his family bravely dealing with the day-to-day life with the condition with Rob revealing he is a 'prisoner in his own body'.
The 40-year-old England, Great Britain and Leeds Rhinos player was first diagnosed with the disease in 2019 and since then, his life has changed dramatically. He currently lives at home with wife Lindsey and three children.
Now communicating via a computer, Rob reveals : "I'm a prisoner in my own body. The lights are on, but no-one's home. I think like you, but my mind doesn't work right. I can't move my body." He describes how it "kills [him] seeing Lindsey juggling everything." Throughout the film, Lindsey, who is an NHS physiotherapist, can be seen helping her husband to cope with his incurable illness.
In heartbreaking scenes, which air in the show on Tuesday, October 18, on BBC Two, Lindsey says: "[Rob] always says, 'find somebody else, you're still young'. There will never be anyone else. No-one can ever take Rob's place." The couple met as teenagers.
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Elsewhere in the film, Rob meets with his consultant, Dr Agam Jung, who calls his disease "an extremely cruel condition," explaining: "You may not be able to speak, you may not be able to swallow, you may not be able to breathe independently, you have weakness in your arms and legs. This leads to dependency and a reduced life span."
Whilst Rob seemingly maintains a positive attitude, Dr Jung says in a private interview: "How do I have the conversation around death? It's there in the patient's mind. It's there in the family's mind. If I do not bring the topic up, that conversation will never happen." Lindsey, meanwhile, describes how she "can't imagine a world without Rob."
Watch Rob's full story on Rob Burrow: Living with MND on BBC Two at 7pm on Tuesday, October 18.
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