INNovember 2002, Jarrod Cunningham sat in his London home and talked to the various media that had shown up from as far away as his native New Zealand. "I did think it was a devastating blow, " he said bravely. "Now I have a different mindset. It's a challenge, one I'm learning to enjoy rather than believing what I have been told in the past. Luckily for me, my mind has not been affected, so why not use that to my advantage?" It was less than six months since he had been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (sometimes called Lou Gehrig's disease after the late New York Yankee), a form of Motor Neurone Disease.

Up to that point, Cunningham was a hot property. Having played with Auckland and Wellington in the Super 12s, he signed for London Irish in 1998 and went on to score 18 tries and 848 points for the club.

He signed for Wasps in 2001 but the first symptoms of the disease, a gradual loss of co-ordination, were beginning to show. Tests confirmed the worst but despite being given a short life expectancy, he fought on and founded the Jarrod Cunningham SALSA Foundation for sufferers of ALS and in 2004 he was awarded the IRB Spirit of Rugby award in recognition of his work in raising awareness of the disease. He returned home to New Zealand in December 2004 where he lived out his days.