Kevin Sinfield already thinking of next challenge to help raise £5m for The Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease

The former player, captain and director of rugby for Leeds Rhinos is now part of the coaching staff at Leicester Tigers, however, he has also spent much of the previous year undertaking epic running challenges to raise funds for research into motor neurone disease (MND).

The total raised so far is topping £1.8m with donations still pouring in and the final total will be split between the centre's fund-raising appeal, being run by the Leeds Hospitals Charity and also the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

It means, with other donations and gift aid, that £1m has already been raised towards the centre which has been earmarked as a "flagship" unit that will become a reference for treatment of MND all around the country.

He said: "I am just massively over-whelmed. I did not really know where to pitch it. I thought £100,000 was a really good amount of money to start with and hoped to raise another £100,000 in sponsorship. I thought if I get to £200,000 I would have been made up, even if it was short I would have been happy with that.

"We are fully aware of last year and what that did (seven marathons in seven days). I didn't think there was any chance of getting anywhere close to that. There are so many worthy charities and causes and we know how difficult it has been for people over the last 18 months with COVID, inflation, gas and energy prices . There is some realism in there so for it to do what it has we are absolutely blown away."

That said, within 48 hours of the 101 mile run, which ended at Headingley Stadium on Tuesday morning, Sinfield had been for a long walk, been on the Watt bike and ran on the spot "to get a taste" of what it felt like.

He told the Yorkshire Evening Post that pushing the body through extreme challenges is the best way to make people take notice.

He said: "We are only a couple of days after and it has not put me off going again. I am looking to do something again, what it will be I am not sure. Geoff (Rob Burrow's father) has said a number of times 'you have done enough, you don't need to keep putting your body through it', but sometimes it is the only way to get people to understand and take notice.

"Something that I am really proud of is that for the last two years we have been able to raise funds and awareness and that this is a terrible disease. People can come out of their houses and not be ashamed because people understand what they are going through.

"I will not stop until we get a cure. It is something that I am passionate about, that the whole team are passionate about. When you have seen first hand, as I have with Rob and met so many families along the route like I have - it grips and grabs you."

Sinfield's run comes as the Yorkshire Evening Post and Leeds Hospitals Charity launch a campaign in the run up to Christmas in a bid to get to the £5m needed to build the centre together as soon as possible - with the ultimate aim being that Rob Burrow will open the centre that is being named after him.

Click here to donate or fundraise to help the appeal"It is really important that when people are diagnosed they get the care and support they deserve, the centre will provide that and a multi-disciplinary approach to treatment, to care, to everything so that it is a one-stop shop, rather than go from pillar to post and it makes that journey a little bit better and smoother.

"We would like to get these across the country but that is a million miles away because we have not got one yet."