Sinfield is heading home for Christmas on final day of latest challenge
Rugby league legend Kevin Sinfield is undertaking his fifth annual fundraising challenge for MND charities, titled 'Running Home for Christmas'. The challenge culminates on December 7th, with Sinfield running through Oldham, including a stop at his junior club Waterhead, before finishing at Saddleworth. He will join the Saddleworth Santa Dash in Uppermill. The week-long event starts on December 1st, covering over 50km daily across Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with each 7km block completed within an hour, a nod to Rob Burrow's jersey number. Oldham Council has expressed strong support for the initiative.
Kevin Sinfield CBE will complete his fifth annual endurance challenge on home soil this December, bringing a week-long, 350-kilometre journey to a festive finish in Saddleworth. The rugby league icon sets off at 7:15 a.m. on Saturday 7 December from Old Trafford—scene of so many triumphs with Leeds Rhinos—and will thread through Manchester, MediaCity, the Etihad Stadium and his first club, Waterhead, before joining more than 2,200 red-suited runners to start the Saddleworth Santa Dash in Uppermill. Moments later he’ll peel away to cross his own finish line, the same spot where his inaugural 2020 effort ended.
The 1-7 December “Running Home for Christmas” campaign honours Sinfield’s former teammate Rob Burrow, who died of motor neurone disease in June. Burrow’s old No. 7 shirt gives the challenge its structure: each day is carved into 7 km legs that must be completed inside an hour before the next begins, leaving the team only the minutes left over for rest. Starting in Scotland and covering seven regions across Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Sinfield and his supporters will average 50 km daily, raising funds for six MND charities with the MND Association as lead partner.
“The whole week is an opportunity to show the MND community that we have not forgotten them and we will continue to bang the drum,” Sinfield said. Previous efforts have already delivered almost £10 million; donations for the 2024 challenge can be made at https://donate.giveasyoulive.com/fundraising/kevin-sinfield-and-teams-fundraising or by texting “Kevin10” to 70143 to give £10.
Oldham Council Leader Cllr Arooj Shah urged residents to line the streets: “Kevin’s achievements as an incredible athlete and as a human-being are truly inspiring, literally going that extra mile for Motor Neurone Disease. I really couldn’t be more proud.”
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