Rob Burrow marathon 2023: Leeds man to run for new motor neurone disease centre after losing wife to disease

Tim Gates, husband of the late MND patient Angela Brown, says the MND centre at Seacroft hospital “is a very dreary place, it needs updating”. This has also been recognised by Leeds Teaching Hospitals – and the Rob Burrow marathon will be raising funds for a new state-of-the-art centre.

Tim and Angela were part of a local MND group in West Yorkshire. They attended meetings every month after Angela was diagnosed with the progressive bulbar palsy form of MND - four months before their wedding in August.

Tim told the Yorkshire Evening Post: "One of the hardest things for me was going into the hospice every day and seeing my wife and smiling, there were the days when I came out of the hospital and just burst into tears.”

As Tim is registered blind, the couple found it difficult to travel to different hospitals for the care his wife needed. Tim recalls Angela going to St. James’s to have her breathing monitored, Chapel Allerton where they gave her a neck brace, and then the Seacroft hospital to get help from a MND doctor.

Tim added: “It was hard – she was having to trip between different hospitals. Because of my sight, I don’t drive. So we had to go on buses. When we were going to Chapel Allerton, we had to change buses twice which was a nightmare because of the wheelchair [Angela] was in”.

The MND group Tim and Angela were a part of reached out to Tim asking if he wanted to get involved with the Great North Run. In 2021, he successfully finished the run and has continued to participate this year. He will also be taking part in the Rob Burrow marathon next year to raise money for the new centre.

“I do this to raise awareness of MND but I also do it to keep the memory of my wife alive,” Tim said. “Before she passed she was desperate for a legacy. I even had a had made with her name on it so when I do the events, she is there with me.”

Joining a running group on Facebook helped Tim get out and “stop thinking” and “going over things in his mind”. He added: “My wife talked about assisted suicide and things like that, and these things stick with you.

“The problem was not getting the help and support we needed – there was no qualified care. I was watching the Rob Burrows’ documentary and they had the same doctors we had. Watching the wife struggle – we had the same problems. The centralised hospital should put everything in one place."

With the aim of the new centre helping people like Angela get around with greater ease, Leeds Hospitals Charity is hoping to raise £5 million to build the new centre for MND named after Rob Burrow, former Leeds Rhinos player who was diagnosed with MND in 2019.

The 2023 Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon is expecting to see 7,777 participants take on a new route through Leeds starting and finishing at Headingley Stadium.