About us Areas We Support Our Current Appeals Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease Appeal Rob Burrow Centre for MND Appeal FAQs What is Motor Neurone Disease (MND)? Motor neurone disease (MND) affects the nerves – called motor neurones – in the brain and spinal cord. MND is a life-shortening disease with no cure. Although the disease will progress, symptoms can be managed to help achieve the best possible quality of life. Read more: What is Motor Neurone Disease? (MND) If you require information about the treatment of Motor Neurone Disease or have any questions about symptoms, please visit the Leeds Motor Neurone Disease Care Centre page on the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust website.Read more: Leeds Motor Neurone Disease Care Centre Why do we need a new MND centre? Originally built with care for infectious diseases in mind, the current home of the Centre is now showing its age. Significantly, the technology relating to the care needs of people with MND has moved on, whilst the building remains the same. The current MND centre is located on a busy multi-purpose ward not built with MND patients in mind and without the ability to be fitted with equipment and facilities for those who are physically impaired. Over the past ten years, referrals to the Leeds MND centre have doubled, with 40 new referrals each year. MND patients are also being diagnosed earlier so are living with the disease for longer. To continue to provide the best quality service, the team need access to facilities tailored to their patients' specific needs. Read more: Why do we need a new hospital for MND? What will the Rob Burrow Centre for MND be like? The new centre covers a space of more than 1,000m² and the designs are impressive, arranged as a series of three primary forms with a light and spacious atrium, and surrounded by the green trees of the Seacroft site. Wheelchair-accessible parking to serve the facility and newly landscaped garden are key parts of the centre. Patients can benefit from real-world situations when testing devices and mobility aids and specialist areas for speech and language therapy, dietetics, neurology, respiratory and palliative care, as well as functions including a large therapy space, a procedure room and an area to allow patients to digitally ‘bank’ their voices if they use a digital aid to support communication. The building will provide holistic and seamless care at a one-stop centre, allowing a greater sense of cohesion and stability for patients. MND patients have complex, changing needs. By designing the centre to meet these needs, all patients who are treated here will receive the best care they can for their condition. Read more: The Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease Is there anything like this already in the UK? While other MND research and treatment centers exist, The Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease will be the first of it's kind in the UK to have its design led by the holistic needs of the patient and their family, creating a supportive environment that complements the expert team providing the care. Where will the new centre be located? The new centre will be located at Seacroft Hospital, located just off the main road, the new centre will help reduce travel across hospital sites and be much more accessible for patients with mobility issues. Demolition work to clear the site for the centre began in November 2022. In November 2023, new hoardings were put up at Seacroft Hospital where the Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease will be built. The hoardings tell just some of the stories of people’s experiences with MND, including an uplifting message from Rob. In June 2024, a groundbreaking event took place at Seacroft, to mark construction company I&G officially starting work on site. When will the Rob Burrow Centre for MND open? Following a series of stakeholder sessions with patients and staff, the new centre is currently being designed by architects Corstorphine & Wright and will be submitted for planning in the New Year. We hope to open the doors of the Rob Burrow Centre for MND in Summer 2025. How much will the Rob Burrow Centre for MND project cost? Since announcing the location for the centre last November as Seacroft Hospital, consultation work with staff, patients and their carers and wider services in the city has been extensive. Due to the economic climate and enhancements to the specifications of the centre, the fundraising total is now £6.8 million to build what will be a state-of-the-art Motor Neurone Disease centre. The cost of the centre will be set at a maximum £6.8 million, we hope we can deliver it for under this amount. Read more: How much will the Rob Burrow Centre for MND project cost? Why isn’t the Rob Burrow Centre for MND being funded by the NHS? Our NHS hospitals receive basic funding from the government. We raise funds for projects, above and beyond what the NHS can provide, to support the latest in healthcare innovation and technology, the treatment of rare conditions and to help reduce health inequalities. Thanks to your donations, we provide over £6.6 million every year to support projects that make a real difference to staff, patients and families across Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. The funds needed to make this exceptional centre a reality are above and beyond what the NHS can provide for people living with MND and their families. How did the appeal come about? The work that Rob Burrow did to raise the profile of MND and to boldly share his journey with the disease has raised the profile of MND significantly. His tireless work to further knowledge and understanding has allowed others to recognise their condition earlier. It is thanks to Rob, his family and your donations that a new purpose-built care centre of excellence will be built, as a positive and fitting legacy to the work that Rob has done in this area. How much has been raised so far? Thanks to our incredible fundraisers, the generosity of tens of thousands of donors, Kevin Sinfield’s epic challenges and over thousands people who took part in the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon, we have now raised over £6.2 million. We are so grateful to everyone who has got behind our appeal, from local businesses and community groups, to people across the nation and even the globe who have tirelessly fundraised, and we know with your continued support, we are confident that we reach our target of £6.8 million. Has the architect for the Rob Burrow Centre for MND been chosen? Are there any designs or visuals of the new centre? Corstorphine & Wright, a multi award-winning, chartered architectural practice has been appointed to take the project onto the design and build stage as part of a competitive tender to be appointed on the projects. They have 11 studios throughout the UK, and have worked on a wide variety of projects across the country from the redevelopment of the former Waterloo International terminal to the transformation of the Royal Liver Building. An intimate audience of approximately 20 people, including Rob Burrow and his parents Geoff and Irene, took part in the first engagement session held by the newly appointed architect firm for the Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease. In February 2024, the full plans and concept designs were submitted to Leeds City Council for approval. Yorkshire-based construction firm, I&G, part of the wider Sewell Group, have been appointed by Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust to build the centre and work began on site in June 2024. Manage Cookie Preferences