FORMER Bradford captain Stephen Darby has emphasised the need to “be positive, love, laugh and smile” as he continues his fight with motor neurone disease.

The 35-year-old retired in 2018 after being diagnosed with the condition that affects the nerves in the brain and spinal cord.

Darby and his wife Steph Houghton, the former Manchester City and England captain, appeared on an episode of the Rob Burrow Seven Meets podcast recorded before the rugby league great died in June following a lengthy battle with MND.

And Darby said: “I always say to the family don’t waste time, we have to enjoy what we have now. Be positive, love, laugh and smile.”

Darby and close friend and ex-British Forces veteran Chris Rimmer, who died of MND in April, launched the Darby Rimmer Foundation in 2019.

The foundation aims to create awareness of the disease, fund and assist research into it with the quest of finding a cure, and to raise funds and offer grants to those with the illness as well as creating a network to help provide information and support.

Like Burrow, Darby has taken part in various fundraising events, and he said when asked what he would like his lasting legacy to be: “To carry on the fight for MND. I like to think we are doing everything that we can to leave MND in a better place.”

Regarding the moment Darby’s diagnosis came, Houghton said: “I had never even heard of MND before Stephen got diagnosed.

“You have all this emotion of being upset, angry, and I was just like ‘Why us? What does this mean for the future?’ everything that kind of just flashes in front of your eyes. We were all heartbroken, I think it’s really hard to deal with.”

Houghton said Darby had been “amazing throughout this whole time in terms of trying to live a normal life.”

She added: “We’ve obviously had to adapt quite a lot in terms of having a bit more support from the family, but at the same time making sure we don’t stop doing what we want to do and don’t stop being a couple.

“I think that’s massively important when you are going through this little bit of a roller-coaster of emotion, that we don’t stop being us, and we certainly haven’t done that, and to stay strong really.

“But nobody can ever really prepare you for when someone tells you like that, and I think more just the attitude of like ‘there’s nothing that can be done,’ I think that’s the probably the worst bit about it, that you find yourself a little bit helpless to do anything.”

Houghton also described Burrow and former Scotland rugby league player Doddie Weir, who died of the disease in 2022, as “amazing,” and said: “I think we’ve still got to just keep fighting that fight.”

Houghton, who retired at the end of last season, also said she and Darby had spoken about starting a family.

“It would be amazing to have some of our own and hopefully that can happen sooner rather than later,” she said.

“I think that was always the plan. I think it’s hard when you are a female doing a sport and you have to sacrifice so much to do that.

“But I think now, ultimately to retire and spend more time with [Darby] and have a little bit more freedom and to be able to have that option of starting a family is definitely what we have spoken about the last few years.”