“In a world full of adversity we must still dare to dream.” Not my words – I wish – but those of the late, great Rob Burrow, Rugby League legend, who died last week. These words were enough on their own to remind us of both our mortality and the limited time we have to enjoy the only life we will get, but actually it was part of a longer message, his final message:
“I hope one day we find a cure and live in a world free of MND.
“By the time that you watch this I will no longer be here.
“I am just a lad from Yorkshire who got to live out his dream of playing rugby league.
“As a father of three young children I would never want any family to have to go through what my family have since my diagnosis.
“I hope I have left a mark on the disease.
“I hope it shows to live in the moment.
“I hope you find inspiration from the whole story.
“My final message to you is whatever your personal battle be brave and face it.
“Every single day is precious.
“Don’t waste a moment.
“In a world full of adversity we must still dare to dream.
“Rob Burrow, over and out.”
Which of these words stand out to you? The one quoted at the top of this blog, perhaps? Hmm. Maybe not. I tried a few times. Was it this one or that one? In the end, I could not separate them. There was no need to.
We all know that time is running out. It starts to run out as soon as we are born. We have little or no idea how long our lives will last or what will cut our lives off in our prime. All we can do is live our lives as best we can.
Rob Burrow couldn’t have known what was coming in his life. A tiny bloke with the biggest heart in a sport of giants, somehow he soared to the top of his sport and stayed there. Lesser mortals might have taken a rain check. “I’m not big enough. I can’t do it.”
Unless we believe in fate – and there is no evidence that such a thing exists – and believe that everything happens for a reason, which for some will mean at the design of a God type character, there is no plan, no grand design; nothing beyond then accident of our birth. In fact, we were only born in the first place despite almost impossible odds. We are, for better or for worse, the lucky ones.
Through the constant fog of depression, perhaps the only thing I see with total clarity, 20/20 vision, if you will, is the need to enjoy life while we still can. And this from a lifelong believer in the old adage that you never do today what you can put off until tomorrow. My increasingly ageing and creaking body reminds me that this journey is not infinite, my ability to do the things I want to do, the dreams I hold dear, will not last too much longer.
I can’t speak for Rob Burrow, or anyone else, but when I was young, and perhaps not so young, I thought I was indestructible and that I would live forever. I would be the only one to avoid death, particularly a gruelling, long-drawn out death, during which I would lose control of my faculties. Christ – when I was much younger, I would run at maximum speed along our road and believe that if I just worked at it, I’d learn to fly. The dreams of children, perhaps, but reality paints a different picture.
No longer will I leave the things I want to do until someday because, as we know someday never comes. Neither does tomorrow. All we have is today. How many dreams of tomorrow have come unstuck today? It’s not the literal tomorrow, I’m sure you understand, but it’s the next step.
My dreams, my ambitions, are simple. Above all, I want our children to be the best people they can be and to have better, more successful lives than we did. I want to visit new places – a step change for me, the person who always wanted to revisit the reassuring and safe past instead of taking a chance. I want to write forever. I have books to read, music to listen to, trains to ride, fine wines to drink, cheese to eat.
Of course, I am saddened by the death of Rob Burrow. He was a Rugby League hero to me, then an even bigger hero in his struggle with MND. Yet I celebrate his courage, his sheer decency, his ability to look beyond his own terrible diagnosis in order to think about others who have or will develop MND. No one can deny that Burrow lived his life to the full.
“I hope I have left a mark on the disease,” he said in his final message. More than that, if the truth be known. MND, that most evil of conditions, may have won the battle this time but thanks to Rob Burrow and those great people who raise awareness of the disease, as well as the millions of pounds they raise, one day science and medicine will defeat it.
“In a world full of adversity we must still dare to dream,” he then concluded, and in daring to dream we must work to make those dreams come true. Like Rob Burrow did.
