Linda Uttley (26 October 1966 – 27 November 2009) was an English

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

footballer. She was born in

Barnes, London Barnes () is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England. It takes up the extreme north-east of the borough, and as such is the closest part of the borough to central London. It is centred west sou ...

and was the youngest of eight siblings. Her rugby career began in 1989 at Teddington Rugby Club. She moved to Wasps Rugby Club in 1995 and won her first international cap in 1997, the start of her career with the Women's England Team. She won a total of thirteen caps, playing in every position except full-back, hooker and prop, and was a member of the squads in the Five Nations and World Cup in 1998. She went on to play for the Classic Lionesses in Bermuda in 2000. In November 2007 she was diagnosed with 'end-stage'

leiomyosarcoma Leiomyosarcoma is a malignant (cancerous) smooth muscle tumor. A benign tumor originating from the same tissue is termed leiomyoma. While leiomyosarcomas are not thought to arise from leiomyomas, some leiomyoma variants' classification is evolvi ...

, a rare and aggressive cancer. Despite her illness, she continued to work for the Rugby Football Union and toured with the England Lionesses. She died on 27 November 2009 at Princess Alice Hospice in Esher at the age of 43. Since then, winners of the RFU Linda Uttley Award, in recognition of the commitment and dedication of an individual, have included Sophie Hemming and Catherine Spencer.

References

1966 births 2009 deaths English rugby union players England women's international rugby union players English female rugby union players Deaths from leiomyosarcoma {{England-rugbyunion-bio-stub