News

Rugby legends and MND heroes Rob Burrow and Kevin Sinfield given special honours at BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2022

Those watching could barely hold back the tears. Absolute legends, the pair of 'em.

Danny Jones Danny Jones - 22nd December 2022

Ex-rugby stars turned motor neurone disease campaigners Rob Burrow and Kevin Sinfield have both been honoured at this year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony.

The former Leeds Rhinos teammates have both gone on to become truly inspiring individuals in their own right but remarkable fundraising figures too, generating millions for the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA) and other charities in the last few years.

Raising huge awareness around the condition in the UK, the pair’s impact could not be overstated, with Burrow earning the Helen Rollason Award “for outstanding achievement in the face of adversity” and Sinfield also handed a special award for his own extraordinary efforts this year.

We’ll pre-warn you, it is a tearful watch:

Having already been awarded an MBE not only for his services to sport but for MND charities and now this, Burrow told the audience: “I’m totally overcome with this award due to the amount of amazing people that have won this before, in particular my MND hero Doddie Weir.”

Weir – a fellow rugby and fundraising hero in Scotland – sadly passed away in November this year, with legends of the sport turning out for his tartan memorial service earlier this week.

Speaking via the same computer that allowed him to read his own CBeebies Bedtime Story in his own accent earlier this year, Burrow said that he didn’t feel he would be here without having met Weir less than a week before his diagnosis in 2017, insisting that he was accepting on the award “on his behalf”.

He also recognised his friend Kevin, “who makes the impossible, possible”, and his family and wife Lindsay for putting their lives on hold to care for him, stating that he would not be here “without [their] sacrifice”. He also thanked his fellow MND warriors, assuring them, “we will not stop, we’ll find a cure”.

As for local Oldham lad and OBE, Sinfield, he delivered some rather moving words of his own as it was clear there was a lot of emotion on the stage, throughout the room and certainly among those watching back home.

The 42-year-old dubbed his friend and colleague as “the most inspirational bloke in the UK at this time”, remarking that his efforts have “shown us all how to be better friends” during difficult times.

He also went on to reflect on the power of sport and its ability “to bring communities together and provide hope” for groups like the MND community, also honouring Doddie Weir by sharing his lasting and crucial message: “MND isn’t incurable, it’s underfunded”.

However, Sinfield’s own inspiring and simply incredible feats cannot be overlooked, having completed the ‘Ultra 7 in 7’ marathon challenge in 2022 on top of numerous other unbelievable achievements in previous years, helping raise over £7 million for MND charities.

Rugby legend, ultra-marathon runner, inspiration | Kevin Sinfield — Manc of the Month November 2022

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The newly-named England defensive coach summed up his speech by reassuring that “we are going to keep fighting; these people need us, the families need us”, adding that he and his team, not to mention everyone else involved in MND will “keep banging the drum and doing our best”.

Truly powerful stuff and more than well deserved, both of them.

If you want to help Rob Burrow and Kevin Sinfield and make an impact in fighting this disease, you can donate to the MNDA here.

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Image — BBC Sport (via Twitter)

News

Andy Burnham reveals plans to build underground tram and train line in Manchester by 2050

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant Underground train

Andy Burnham has announced some ambitious long-term plans to build an underground tram and train line in Manchester.

As Greater Manchester sets its sights on a new era of economic growth, on the way to becoming a ‘second city’ to rival any other on the planet by 2050, Mayor Andy Burnham shared the city region’s blueprint for a ‘greener, fairer future’ this week – with underground transport plans being right the heart of it.

Mr Burnham says his vision for the next decade is to create a ‘thriving’ city region where everyone can ‘live a good life’.

At the launch of The Greater Manchester Strategy 2025-2035 this week, the Mayor announced everything from plans to build thousands of new homes, including social housing, to intentions to transform the region’s technical education system through delivery of the Greater Manchester Baccalaureate (MBacc), and more.

Andy Burnham reveals plans to build an underground tram and train line in Manchester / Credit: TfGM

But it’s public transport where it seems some of the most significant changes are set to be made before 2050 arrives.

The Mayor revealed plans for new bus routes, tramlines, and train stations to connect ‘thriving communities’ across the city region with an integrated lower-cost transport system that’ll help more people get out and access new opportunities. 

Construction of a tram stop to service new homes at Victoria North will also start by 2028, it has been confirmed, while work to bring Metrolink to Stockport – which has already been announced to huge support – will begin by 2030.

Two commuter rail lines will join the Bee Network next December as well, with another six joining by 2028. 

The headline-grabbing announcement, though, has to be that Mr Burnham has also announced plans to unlock ‘transformative’ investment in transport infrastructure, so that by 2050, Manchester Piccadilly has an underground tram and train station with a high-speed rail link to Liverpool.

He’s also looking to boost regeneration of the surrounding area, effectively making it ‘the Kings Cross of the North’.  

“We’re the UK’s fastest growing economy and stand on the cusp of what I believe could be our best decade since the Victorian era,” commented Mayor Andy Burnham, “and our task for the next decade is to build a platform for success for all our residents.

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“Our vision is ambitious, but in my eight years as Mayor, I’ve learned that, when we pull together, there’s nothing we can’t achieve.

“There’s a long and proud tradition of collaboration in Greater Manchester. Devolution has turbocharged that and now we’re ready to deliver a new model of growth where no one is left behind.”

Featured Image – Maria Lupan (via Unsplash)

News

A preview of a promising philanthropic project as Embassy Village makes progress

Danny Jones Danny Jones Embassy homeless village Manchester tour preview progress

Embassy Village, the upcoming homeless village that is set to open in Manchester, is making quick progress, and we recently got to preview the project with an early tour of the site.

Located just outside the city centre proper in Castlefield and near the border into Salford, the humanitarian housing project is looking to provide not just shelter but food and drink, employment, education and all manner of support to local rough sleepers.

Starting out as a controversial shipping container concept, which would have seen repurposed bits of old freight cargo turned into ‘pods’, the idea has grown since then and now

In fact, they’re not far from being done, with the team currently predicting a November finish date. Here’s how it’s looking so far.

embassy village manchester
embassy village progress
Credit: The Manc Group

Situated along a slice of the Bridgewater Canal, running along the length of the recognisable railway arches – 22 of them, to be precise – Embassy Village is set to become the first privately-funded homeless community not just in the UK but anywhere in Europe.

As far as the group behind this inspiring bit of philanthropy can tell in researching for this development, they haven’t found anything like this anywhere on the continent, certainly not on this scale.

Starting out as a repurposed luxury tour bus turned mobile rough sleeping shelter, they have since gone on to run three male and two women’s shelters, helping more than 175 individuals get back on their feet, from being rehomed to getting back into work and, ultimately, living independently.

Created by co-founder and director Sid Williams back in 2018, who has already helped countless vulnerable adults in and around Greater Manchester, there is a lot of faith behind this initiative, quite literally, in fact.

Sid and his wife Tess, who has also been helping spearhead Embassy‘s work here in the UK, are passionate Christians, but there’s no dogmatic or preachy vibes to be detected – at least as far as we could tell, anyway.

homeless village castlefield mcr
The ‘Village Hall’, where work, education and general life skills will be developed.
homeless village greater manchester
Outdoor spaces are being carved out, including areas to relax, sports courts and more.
Suitable candidates in the shelter system will be selected in order to identify those who could manage resettlement. (Credit: The Manc)

Besides a nice ‘tithing’ idea, which sees 10% of all unrestricted funds from the village donated to relevant charities in the region and further afield, the only real Christian value being promoted here is ‘love thy neighbour’, and that’s the kind of ethos we can get behind regardless of creed.

You can see some of the old fashioned values in aspects such as the public hall seen above, where people will not only be encouraged to gather but learn, create, socialise and once again start to reintegrate into a proper community.

There’ll even be parts of the Embassy’s ‘resettlement team’ living on-site to help get people back on their feet, with at least one dedicated staff member assigned to every six residents.

As Sid put it in a spin on the well-trodden old proverb, ‘it takes a village to raise a child’, he believes that sometimes, “it takes a city to raise a village.”

Those staying here will not be given a leg up back into the working world, providing inroads to full-time contracts and a proper wage, but they will also be encouraged to take up wellbeing activities, taken on trips and away days beyond the city limits and Greater Manchester full stop.

An example of the on-site staff’s living quarters.
Each unit will have it own front door and all essential amenities.
They have an approximate 92% success rate when it comes to rehoming and reintegrating residents, with many ultimately coming back to work for the organisation. Think of it as a ‘pay it forward’ spirit,

With dozens of local businesses contributing to the construction of Embassy Village, they’ve now managed to raise more than £5.2 million in funding.

As well as backing from developers Capital & Centric (led by Salford-born Tim Heatley) and the likes of regeneration specialist Peel L&P, who made the land available, there are several other organisations chipping in to help house upwards of 40 different individuals.

That being said, they are still roughly £400,000 short of their desired target, which will help them build every aspect of Embassy Village they’re hoping to make come to fruition, so further partnerships are obviously welcome.

Following an official update from Manchester City Council, we can also now confirm that the space will link up to the soon-to-be expanded Castlefield Viaduct, where three of four currently out-of-use tram lines will be turned into one long sky garden, similar to New York’s famous High Line.

Following our tour of Embassy Village so far, there was one salient takeaway: there are a lot of people who really care about this cause working on this project.

Is it perfect? Maybe not? Would it be great if we could simply end Greater Manchester’s rough sleeping crisis by housing every rough sleeper in a traditional home, or one of the many new build properties in 0161? Of course it would, but we sadly all know it isn’t as simple as that.

Nevertheless, this current option is damn sight better than the alternative: allowing more and more people to end up on the streets, bouncing in and out of shelters, struggling with addiction, mental health and so on. They’re trying and they already have a proven track record spanning more than half a decade.

You can get a better idea of what it will look like when completed down below.

A look at Embassy Village as construction on Manchester’s homeless housing project begins
The preview tour did help us picture how these Embassy Village CGIs will be brought to life.

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For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — The Manc Group

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