{"id":861396,"date":"2026-03-30T23:46:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T23:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/861396\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:46:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T23:46:24","slug":"geoff-burrow-father-of-british-rugby-league-champion-rob-burrow-passes-away-after-short-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/861396\/","title":{"rendered":"Geoff Burrow, father of British rugby league champion Rob Burrow, passes away after short illness"},"content":{"rendered":"

The family of late British rugby league<\/a> great Rob Burrow has been struck by a second tragedy inside two years with the passing of Geoff Burrow.<\/p>\n

Rob was diagnosed with motor neuron disease in 2019 and lost his battle five years later in 2024; now, after a short illness, his father Geoff has died, Leeds Rhinos have announced.<\/p>\n

Geoff was a \u201ctireless campaigner\u201d for the MCD community following his son\u2019s diagnosis and continued to work after after Rob\u2019s passing.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is with deep sadness that the club has learned of the passing on Monday 30th March of Geoff Burrow, the father of Rob Burrow, after a period of ill health,\u201d a club statement reads.<\/p>\n

\u201cA devoted husband, father and a grandfather, Geoff brought Rob to his first ever game at Headingley and started his love of the Rhinos.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeoff was always a champion for those who did not have a voice throughout his career as a trade union representative.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe club would like to pass on our deepest condolences to Geoff\u2019s wife Irene and the Burrow family at this sad time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to ask that the family are given privacy at this time. May he rest in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rob played a whopping 492 games for the Rhinos over his decorated 17-year career, plus two representative games for Yorkshire, 13 for England and five for Great Britain.<\/p>\n

\"RobRob Burrow’s family, (L-R) sister Claire Burnett, father Geoff Burrow, mother Irene Burrow and sister Joanne Hartshorn, during a ground breaking ceremony at the \u00a36 million Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease in Leeds, one day after the ex-rugby league player’s death was announced. Credit: Danny Lawson – PA Images\/PA Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Leeds CEO Jamie Jones-Buchanan, a former Rhinos player himself, paid tribute to Geoff\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe loved rugby league. He loved what Rob did and he was part of the team, always will be,\u201d Jones-Buchanan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll always be part of our history, our heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n

As recently as last November, Burrow was there for the opening of the Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease at Seacroft Hospital in Leeds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis centre is not just for MND sufferers and their families, but for all the staff. The staff are marvellous, they\u2019re angels,\u201d Burrow said at the time.<\/p>\n

Director of estates and facilities at Leeds Teaching Hopsital NHS Trust Craig Richardson said Burrow was instrumental in the creation of the MND centre named in his son\u2019s honour.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are really sorry to hear the news about Geoff Burrow,\u201d Richardson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeoff played a huge role in the development of the new Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe came to every stakeholder and development meeting over the two years, and he championed all the work taking place to build the centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had so much energy and enthusiasm to help create a legacy for Rob and support the MND community.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of late British rugby league great Rob Burrow has been struck by a second tragedy inside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,388,1144,30118,712,10292,93,16,15,1764],"class_list":["post-861396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","category-uk","category-united-kingdom","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-lifestyle","tag-northern-ireland","tag-nrl","tag-scotland","tag-sponsored-content","tag-sport","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116320795902120112","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=861396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}