Lewis Moody ‘picking up baton’ left by Doddie Weir with MND fundraising cycle ride

The Guardian Sport3h ago4 min readOriginal source →

TL;DR

Lewis Moody is leading a 500-mile cycling challenge this summer to raise funds for motor neurone disease, honoring Doddie Weir's legacy. He will be joined by fellow 2003 World Cup winners and his sons, with proceeds going to the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation.

Key points

Lewis Moody is leading a 500-mile cycling challenge.
The challenge is to raise funds for motor neurone disease research.
Moody was diagnosed with MND last October.
The My Name’5 Doddie Foundation has raised over £23.5 million.
Moody aims to honor Doddie Weir's legacy.

Mentioned in this story

Lewis MoodyDoddie WeirMy Name’5 Doddie Foundation

England Rugby2003 World Cup Winners

The former England captain Lewis Moody has said he is “picking up the baton” left by Doddie Weir after announcing plans to lead a 500-mile, seven-day cycling challenge this summer to raise funds for the fight against motor neurone disease.

Moody will be joined by many of his fellow 2003 World Cup winners, including Jonny Wilkinson, Mike Tindall and Ben Kay, as well as his teenage sons on a journey from Newcastle to the Allianz Stadium in Twickenham, with all proceeds going to the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation.

The former Leicester, Bath and British & Irish Lions forward became the latest retired player to be diagnosed with MND, which he revealed last October, with the disease having claimed the lives of Weir and the former rugby league international Rob Burrow in the past four years.

The My Name’5 Doddie Foundation has raised more than £23.5m to fund MND research, and Moody has committed to continuing the former Scotland international’s legacy in fighting a disease that results in six new diagnoses each day in the UK alone.

“I’m really proud to be aligning my name with Doddie, who was a force of nature as a character,” Moody said. “I feel like in many ways I’m being brought off the bench to take that baton forward and to try and get this job done. That’s an easy thing to say, but a very difficult thing to achieve. Whether it’s in my lifetime or not, I intend to give my energy and time to a cause that will produce outcomes.

“When I speak to specialists there’s a lot of hope and developments in fighting this disease. I don’t know if that would have been the case when those guys were diagnosed.”

The Lewis XV’s challenge will begin on Sunday 14 June at Newcastle, the most northerly Prem club, where Weir played for seven years and where Moody sealed the first of seven domestic titles with Leicester, before continuing to his old clubs Leicester, Bath and Bracknell and concluding at Twickenham, where he will deliver the match ball for the Prem final on Saturday 20 June.