Rugby league figure Kevin Sinfield has been knighted in the King's Birthday Honours in recognition of his huge effort to aid research into motor neurone disease. The award makes him Sir Kevin and places him among the most prominent names on this year's list, honoured not for his playing career alone but for the campaigning work he has carried on away from the pitch.
Sinfield has raised more than eleven million pounds for motor neurone disease causes through his fundraising efforts. Reflecting on the recognition, he said he was still coming to terms with it, describing himself as very humbled and very overwhelmed by all of it. The scale of what he has achieved has turned him into one of the most recognised faces of the fight against the disease in Britain.
His fundraising was inspired by his late friend and Leeds teammate Rob Burrow, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease and later died from it. Sinfield said people want to talk to him about Rob all the time, so his friend is never out of his thoughts, adding that Burrow provided the inspiration for it all and that he believes Rob would be so happy at the honour.
Sinfield said his friend had wanted to make things better for those who came after him, and that he had certainly done that and would continue to do so. The bond between the two men, forged during their years together at Leeds, has remained at the heart of the campaign, with Sinfield framing the knighthood as a recognition shared with the wider community affected by the disease.
Among those honoured alongside him is Dame Helen Mirren, who becomes a companion of honour for services to drama. Mirren, who won an Oscar for playing the late Queen in 2006, joins a list that spans sport, the arts and public life. Knighthoods were also awarded to the men behind the animation studio that brought the world Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run and Shaun the Sheep.
The recognition extended to the sporting world as well, with six of England's Lionesses, who were part of last summer's Euros winning squad, becoming MBEs. Together the awards reflect the breadth of achievement being marked in this year's list, from charitable campaigning and elite sport to drama and the creative industries that have carried British names around the world.