“I’m good at the moment,” says Lewis Moody with a smile.
In response to how he is now after revealing his MND (Motor Neuron Disease) diagnosis last October, it is never going to be an easy question to answer, but his relaxed and emotional response was heart-warming.
His outlook on life with MND is, though, inspirational. Moody has goals to help himself, his family, but also to help others with MND and the countless individuals working at pace to ultimately find a cure for MND.
To that end, Moody has taken his own inspiration from other rugby greats who sadly have gone before him. The great Scotland lock forward Doddie Weir and the Leeds and Great Britain legend Rob Burrow became synonymous with raising awareness and funds for MND research after their diagnosis, and so now Moody has joined forces with the ‘My Name’5 Doddie Foundation’ (MNDF) to take on the baton from them.
Moody has called on his ‘mates’ from England’s 2003 World Cup winning squad, Leicester and many a previous foe, now friends, from International rugby to join him on a 500-mile cycle ride from Newcastle to Twickenham.
They will deliver the match ball for the PREM Rugby Final at Twickenham on June 20 after starting the ride at England’s most northerly club – Newcastle Red Bulls – on June 14. For Moody to support MNDF feels natural.
“We’ve (Moody’s family) spent a long time trying to understand and figure out what this whole space is and the important thing for me is if we’re going to connect with a charity or start our own where we’re going to be applying that main effort and it became very quickly apparent that the leading force in the MND space was My Name’s Doddie Foundation,” he said.
And for numerous reasons not other than the big man himself, Doddie and the incredible work that he did, there feels a sort of natural connection.
“I think the space I arrived in is vastly different to the one that Doddie and Rob arrived in, in that I feel a sense of hope,” he continued.
“In this space when I speak to specialists they talk about hope and I don’t know if that would have been the case when those guys were diagnosed.
“Of course hope is one thing and it’s nice to have that, but action is really where I suppose I find my energy and find my focus is wanting to move, hope into clear actions and then clear outcomes.”
England’s 2003 Rugby World Cup winner Lewis Moody was diagnosed with motor neurone disease
With the links, if there are links, between impact sports, physical exertion and MND still to be fully understood, one thing Moody does know is that living with MND means he has to temper his own competitiveness and be aware of his fatigue levels over the course of a 500-mile cycle ride.
“The reason for it being so soon is to make sure that physically I feel like I can, I can contribute and get through it!” he added.
“For me it’s just about bringing my mates back together. I so enjoyed the Slater ride (“4Ed” Campaigns – Ed Slater, former Leicester player who was diagnosed with MND in 2022) and that connective feeling of being back with a load of competitive idiots that love pushing themselves.
“The competitive juices suddenly went overdrive, and it was nice to be surrounded by those types of lunatics again, but we won’t be racing anywhere. It’ll be just getting from A to B because they just about finished me off on that bike ride!
“With MND the specialists were cautious to sort of say yes (to Moody’s bike ride). Exercise yes, keep fit, but, you know, be careful, be wary of extreme exertion, you will fatigue quickly, you will be more tired, look after yourself all that type of stuff.
“So there are different boundaries in place for me now. But 100 per cent, I love… there’s nothing like having the opportunity to get together and feel a bit of discomfort together – but taking the race element out of it, which is really nice!”
Former England Rugby player Lewis Moody after presenting the match ball during the Quilter Nations Series match at Twickenham in November
It has been just over six months since Moody publicly revealed his MND diagnosis, the disease, as Moody explained, works in a unique way – every person with it is different.
“The only sort of significant noticeable change is still in my hand,” Moody explained. “The shoulder strength is diminished as it was, but not significantly reduced since diagnosis.
“The hardest thing is noticing every day the little things, you know, so you might say the other day, I noticed a slight difference in my finger strength.
“Whether it’s opening a bottle top, holding a fork, cutting your food…those little things mentally are a challenge when they present themselves, but I think within sort of within a day you can move past it, just focus on functional things I can do rather than things that I’m less able to do. But at the minute touch wood, everything still remains slow so hopefully it’ll continue.”
“I suppose from a personal point of view there’s something about wanting to show that I can still do things like this and however progression occurs, while having to slightly temper my mindset a little bit from where it would have been in the past it’s not about winning the race to anything.
“It’s about getting to the end, understanding what I’m capable of and still being able to do it I think is important for me, but also just wanting to show anyone that yes, when we’re confronted with difficult news and we all are and people are on a daily basis, not just with MND that if you’ve got support and if you’ve got the right mindset we can still, you know, humans, humans are resilient buggers and we can do, you know, whatever we choose to, if we put our mind to it.”
Rob Burrows was honoured by the crowd as the Super League All-Time XIII was revealed at Headingley
Moody was highly respected and admired by team-mates and opponents during his illustrious playing career. His nickname ‘Mad-dog’ gives a clue to the commitment and intensity he brought to his game so his all-in attitude to help raise awareness for MND through the ‘My Name’s Doddie Foundation’ should surprise no one.
“Being part of this campaign gives me purpose, being a part of this wonderful foundation and the people within it,” he continued.
“It sort of brings a smile to my face. Yes, no one wants to be diagnosed with MND. No one wants to be in this position, but it does give you a strangely privileged position.
“I suppose I can call it that; it’s weird and it doesn’t sound right, but it’s how I feel about it. I suppose in a sense that I now have real clarity on what and how I’m going to live my life from these days forward.”
For further information regarding the work of MNDF visit https://www.myname5doddie.co.uk/; donations to Moody’s cycle challenge can be made at https://uk.emma-live.com/LewisMoodyCycle.
