The first concept designs for the Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease have been shared with Rob and his family, as the project to build a new centre in Rob’s name takes a step forward in its development.

The state-of-the-art centre, funded by charitable donations to our MND centre appeal, will be a centre of excellence in the UK and the first of its kind in Europe, supporting those patients and their families and carers living with the disease. The initial plans for this specialist centre include an attractive central courtyard garden, large internal rooms with plenty of natural light and ample shared spaces for patients and their families and carers to relax before, during and after treatments. These physical features were high on the wish list of patients and staff who were consulted as part of the planning for the centre.

After seeing the designs, Lindsey Burrow said: “We’re absolutely blown away by the designs that we have seen, it has certainly exceeded our expectations of what this centre could look like. For us, parking, accessibility and bright open spaces were the most important aspects, and it’s exciting to see that this centre will offer so much more. We’re really pleased.”

Claire Lang, Specialist Lead Nurse at the current Motor Neurone Disease Centre said; “It has been really positive to see the first initial plans for the new centre and to really start to visualise what this will mean for our patients and those who support them. The centre will provide one location where people can experience holistic and seamless care, where we come to them and support them in a comfortable and inspiring location away from the challenges of their condition.

 We’re looking forward to the larger spaces that can accommodate wheelchairs and in seeing the possibilities that good technology can have on quality of life. Since this condition is relentlessly progressive, MND patients have complex changing needs and the new centre will be able to adapt to these.”

Day Architects, based in Manchester, regularly work with Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, and have supported the campaign to build a new MND care centre by working on the concept designs. A consultation with staff, patients, their careers and the Burrow family has been taking place over the past four months to gather the core ideas and vision that will go into the building of the new centre.

Craige Richardson, Director of Estates and Facilities at Leeds Teaching Hospitals, said; “This is a fantastic project for Leeds Teaching Hospitals to be involved in and we’re thankful to the Burrow Family, to Leeds Hospitals Charity and many others, for spurring this on to make it happen. We’re investing the manpower and infrastructure to support the realisation of the new centre and envisage that it will be a flagship centre for care provision for the North that sits within our greater vision for care in Leeds, a great new building and service alongside The Building the Leeds Way project to build two new hospitals in Leeds.”

Kevin Sinfield’s epic The Extra Mile challenge has contributed a large proportion to the current fundraising total of just over £1.5m and there are currently more than 30 different fundraising activities underway. This includes Jude De Vos climbing Ben Nevis in June, raising funds in memory of her son Jody who died of MND 5 years ago and newlyweds Francis and Anna Nelson, joined by Francis’ dad Brian, cycling 5,000 miles - that’s one mile for every person living with MND in the UK.

If you'd like to support the Rob Burrow Centre for MND appeal, you can get involved in one of our events to raise funds, or you can fundraise your way to support the appeal.

Find out more about our MND centre appeal