‘Really nice’: Sir Kevin Sinfield reveals the moment he discovered his knighthood
‘We were just heading out for an evening meal. It was a really nice moment’ 💖
Kevin Sinfield has spoken about the moment that he discovered he was being knighted.
The Leeds Rhinos legend and dedicated campaigner for Motor Neurone Disease, having raised over £11m, was included in the Birthday Honours list last week. It comes ahead of his final 7 in 7 fundraiser coming later in the year.
Sinfield, 45, becomes just the second ever rugby league player to be knighted. In a new video shared on social media by the UK Government, Sir Kevin has detailed the exact moment he got the good news.
He explained: “We were just heading out for an evening meal. We set off driving and my wife said, I think you need to pull over, there’s a letter here for you, that she’d opened and started to read. And, yeah, it was a really nice moment.”
“To understand that I am only the second rugby league player ever in 131 years to have received this honour is massively humbling.
“I wanted to be a professional player from the age of 11. It was my dream to play rugby, to go on and do it for a great club, with a great team, to win trophies was really special. The friends I’ve got from the game is the thing I’m most proud of.”
Sinfield has been taking on fundraising challenges for MND following the diagnosis of his friend and team-mate Rob Burrow. Since taking on his first 7 in 7 challenge back in 2020, he has raised £11 million.
His further gruelling challenges took the figure raised into eight figures, and contributed to the opening of the Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease in November 2025, just over a year after Burrow’s death.
Sir Kevin hopes his knighthood will help further raise awareness for MND.
“When Rob got diagnosed, found out pretty quickly that when people get MND, people stop turning up and showing up and visiting because it strips too many things away, and makes it too difficult for people to see it,” he said.
“And, I made sure that I was going to keep showing up no matter what. The running started basically because I made a promise to him that by Christmas morning, 2020, which was just over a year after he got diagnosed, he’d wake up with an amount in his bank account.
“We did seven marathons in seven days, we said we’d do them all in under four hours. We raised £2.8 million on that first one, the vast majority went to the MND association.
“We started to see the difference it was making to families and it then became our annual challenge. None of this would have been possible without the help of so many wonderful people. I’ve always struggled with individual recognition because I’ve always been in a team.
“For as long as I can remember, I’ve either been in a rugby team or been in a coaching team or been in the 7 in 7 team.
“As with all teams, you can’t do it on your own. I think the recognition is certainly representative of my time in rugby league and certainly for the last six years, running for the MND community.
“I think, you know, it is great recognition for the MND community, and it enables us to keep to try and find a cure.”