Motor Neuron Disease | 2025 Leeds Marathon to be run in memory of Gordon Aikman
Former Spartan Kenney Collins will be running the 2025 Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon on Monday 11 May in memory of teammate Gordon Aikman to raise money for MND Scotland.
Kenney and Gordon became lifelong friends as young boys when they met at Kirkcaldy Gymnastics Club and continued their gymnastics careers from there with the Spartans, training as part of the Scottish NDP squad in the early 90’s. Later in life Gordon was diagnosed with motor neurons disease (MND) and sadly passed in 2017, three years on from his diagnosis. Before his passing, Gordon fundraised and promoted awareness of the disease in turn raising a staggering £550,000 for MND Scotland to carry out research and train dedicated MND nurses. His work and memory have been honoured with a lecture theatre at Edinburgh University and a ScotRail train both named after him.

In personal memory of Gordon and to continue raising awareness, Kenney is taking on his first ever marathon race this May. Hosted in Leeds, the route is named after Rob Burrows a former rugby player that also campaigned and lost his battle to the disease in 2024. The main goal Kenney is aiming for is to hit his fundraising target of £2,000 with the bonus of completing the route in the three and a half hours region.
Speaking on why he has chosen this race and MND Scotland as the charity Kenney said:
“Due to this close connection and digging deeper into the bigger picture as to how much MND can affect, not only the person and the family but the friends and communities that they come from I really want to raise as much money during this challenge as I can.”


Read more about Gordon’s story and if you would like to donate to MND Scotland on JustGiving through the button below.
Best wishes to Kenney in his fundraising as well as his preparations in the lead up to the race and on the day!