• [Daily Mirror Icon]
• News
• UK News
• Rob Burrow

Rob Burrow's widow encourages parents to discuss grief as she opens up on struggle with kids

Lindsey Burrows is urging the public to talk about death to their children warning 'grief is invisible' as she admits she found it 'hard' at first after rugby star Rob died of motor neurone disease

[Lindsey at a table with her three children]

View 4 Images

Lindsey Burrow told how she was scared of talking to her children about death(Image: PA)

Rob Burrow's wife Lindsey is on a mission to help families navigate grief as she revealed that their family tries to talk about him every day.

The former Leeds Rhinos star lost his life in June 2024 at the age of 41 after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) in December 2019. Since then Lindsey, 42, has been busy raising money for his Foundation and trying to help other families going through heartbreak and grief.

She is highlighting new research commissioned by a charity called Celebration Day which found more than half of parents dreaded talking about death with their children. On the last Monday in May, the charity asks people to pause to remember and mark the memory of the people who made us who we are today.

[Lindsey Burrow]

View 4 Images

Lindsey Burrow is urging the public not to be scared of talking to their children about death(Image: Paul Cooper/Shutterstock)

Talking to Sky News, Lindsey, now a single mum of their three children, Macy, 14, Maya, 10 and Jackson, seven, said: We try and talk about Rob every day. But she admits at first she had found it incredibly hard to talk about his death with the children.

As a parent you just want to protect your children and have to deal with your own grief as well as three grieving children is incredibly difficult, she said. Statistics show that 53 per cent of parents avoid talking about death with their children and I was one of those percentages because I feared talking about death with the children.

Death to me was incredibly sad. But actually what Ive learned is that it is okay to be sad and it is okay to talk about death. Grief is invisible so it is important that we do talk about grief and bereavement. For me as a parent it was always about me being so positive in front of the children but showing the children it is okay to be sad and okay to grieve is really important.

[Lindsey Burrow before the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon]

View 4 Images

Lindsey Burrow before the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon(Image: PA)

She pointed out from September this year the Government is introducing grief and bereavement into the national curriculum. In cooperation with Celebration Day there are finding the words packs being sent to schools.

Burrow, who played almost 500 times for Leeds Rhinos over a 16-year career, became a high-profile campaigner for MND awareness and helped to raise millions of pounds for research. His fundraising helped a specialist MND centre get built in Leeds in his name.

Talking about how she is coping with Robs death, she told Sky News: Everyone who has gone through grief knows you have your good and your bad days but the children keep me busy. The children are my priority and the reason I wake up in the morning with a smile on my face.

[Rob Burrow playing in the grass with his children]

View 4 Images

Amazing dad Rob Burrow left messages for his children to be played at special moments in their lives.

I am so lucky to have three beautiful children who are very much like Rob. They are brave, they are courageous, they just love life. I think none of us know whats round the corner, none of us know what path is going to take us on, so its important that we live each day to it fullest and thats exactly what Rob wanted us to do and Rob showed us the way forward.

Lindsey previously told ITV News how she researched before his death about how to tell their children and how to help them through it. She said: But until youre actually in that situation its very difficult to know what to do. I never thought it was a situation I would find myself in, at 41-years-old losing my husband and the children losing their dad.

"But I took real strength and comfort in the thought that Rob had had enough, hed fought his battle and we were all there. He was surrounded by his family, by the ones who love him the most, and he went really peacefully, surrounded by love."

Lindsey has now written a memoir, Take Care, about her time as her husband's carer and shared photographs of the family with Rob in his final moments. She said last year: "The children had big smiles on their faces, painting his nails, making those memories so Im so grateful we had that time as a family.

"I hope that the children dont fear death because he went very peacefully and thats the best we couldve asked. When you love somebody you don't want to see them suffering and at the end it was tough, Rob had fought his battle. It was time."

Before he died the rugby league legend made a video to be released after his death, urging people not to "waste a moment" of their lives. He also left messages to his children to be played at special moments in their lives. The speech was recorded for BBC documentary Theres Only One Rob Burrow, and said he hoped there would one day be a cure for the degenerative condition.

"My final message to you is whatever your personal battle be brave and face it," he said. "In a world full of adversity we must still dare to dream."

[Daily Mirror Icon]

ENJOYED THIS STORY?

Choose Daily Mirror as a 'Preferred Source' on Google News for quick access to the news you value.