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.
With more than a dozen former internationals signed up Moody is looking forward to enjoying some healthy competition between the riders, and Tindall has been identified as the man to beat.“‘Tins’ is surprisingly fit still,” Moody said. “He will 100% be up there. I quite like the idea that there will be enough competition to get us through it. I’m sure there will be stints where people decide they need to put the hammer down and blow off some steam.
“I’ve never seen Wilco [Wilkinson] on a bike, so he’s probably hired a group of people to get him ready! I dread to think how he’s going to turn up looking. Is there a bike strong enough to withstand the power that he can put through it?”
Moody is in a positive frame of mind six months after his shock diagnosis, with the organising and training for the ride giving him renewed focus. “I’m good at the moment,” he said. “The only noticeable change is in my hand. The other day I noticed a slight difference in my finger strength, opening a bottle top, holding a fork, cutting food. Those little things are a challenge mentally when they present themselves, but within a day you can move past it.
“I don’t want to be in this position, of course, but it does sometimes feel like a strange privilege. I’ve been given the opportunity to have a really clear vision of what I want to do with my time now. And that is to spend it with the people I love. And doing the things I love, and doing it with purpose. Being a part of this campaign gives me more purpose than anything. It brings a smile to my face.”
For more information on the Lewis XV ride visit uk.emma-live.com/LewisMoodyCycle, and www.myname5doddie.co.uk