Absolutely incredible scenes here.
A 99-year-old army veteran has raised over £6,000,000 for the NHS by doing 100 laps of his back garden.
Captain Tom Moore from Bedfordshire, England, had wanted to walk the length of his back garden 100 times before his 100th birthday.
Moore, who served in India and Burma during World War 2, initially wanted to raise £1,000 to support the NHS’s vital work during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Remarkably, he has (at the time of writing) raised over £6,000,000 for the NHS Charities Together – and has said that he wants to do even more laps of his garden as a result.
I’m Captain Tom Moore, war veteran, 99 years of age (soon to be 100) and I’m walking for the NHS to raise money for our heroes.https://t.co/M1dkvoV3kE
— Captain Sir Tom Moore (@captaintommoore) April 10, 2020
Tom told BBC News that he found it “almost unbelievable” when his fundraiser passed the £1 million mark.
“I do [laps] each day, so that eventually I’ll get to 100, then after that I shall continue and do some more,” he said
“When you think of who it is all for – all those brave and super doctors and nurses we have got – I think they deserve every penny, and I hope we get some more for them too.”
Walking 10 laps per day, Tom had wanted to complete the 100 lengths of his garden (25m each way) before his 100th birthday at the end of the month.
Daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore and son-in-law Colin Ingram set up a Just Giving page for Tom to help him raise money. They had at first presumed it would be a “heartwarming” local story, but the fundraiser has since gone viral, triggering a surge of donations from around the world.
So much so that the fundraising webpage even crashed for a period of time due to the sheer number of people who were trying to donate.
“Let’s all carry on and remember that things will get better,” said Tom.
“We have had problems before – we have overcome them – and we shall all overcome the same thing again.”
You can check out a video of Tom walking for the NHS here:
You can check out Tom’s JustGiving page here.
Images via JustGiving.
