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Some people climb Mount Everest to raise money for charity. Others run a marathon, jump from a plane, swim in the Canal or do all four.
They train for months, make a great song and dance about it, buy tons of expensive Lycra kits and stretchy clothes, and invariably test the patience of their closest and loved ones.
Captain Tom Moore, a 99-year-old retired civil servant in gala attire and a WWII veteran, is a bit more discreet in his approach.
Its objective? One hundred laps from his front lawn in Bedfordshire, before turning 100 on April 30.
Captain Tom Moore, a 99-year-old retired civil servant in gala attire and a WWII veteran, is a bit more discreet in his approach.
He thought it would be a nice change from the running machine, kept on a surprisingly challenging incline, which he keeps in his sun-drenched, book-filled living room. How nice to be able to enjoy the warm spring air and the song of the birds while pushing its faithful frame to walk up and down.
Even better, I hoped I could raise some money for the NHS while doing so.
And so just over a week ago, with the help of his youngest daughter Hannah, he opened an account for Just Giving, Tom’s 100th birthday hike for the NHS, he set his goal at £ 1,000 ‘pretty optimistic’, He put on a pair of support shoes, his best blazer, an old regiment tie, and a host of army medals, and headed to the other side of the garden.
He passed his original goal in a couple of days, and then, well, as he explains, things really took off.
‘Suddenly we were at £ 50,000. So £ 100,000. Now the figures are simply incredible. Three, four, five million, “he says.‘ I turn my back on him for a few minutes and he shoots himself up again. It’s amazing money. The kind of money you just can’t visualize. “
You are not exaggerating. In the two and a half hours it took me to drive from my house to meet him in his garden yesterday and return home, the money raised had increased by more than £ 2 million. About an hour later, another million rose.
Moments after 11 p.m. Tonight, nearly 500,000 donors had donated £ 10 million.
And it will all go to NHS Charities Together, which supports frontline workers.
By the time the Post was released to the press on Wednesday night, nearly 500,000 donors had donated £ 9.5 million
“The response has been miraculous,” he says, shaking his head and looking completely delighted, and about 20 years younger than him. “It was a surprise and I am very grateful that everyone seems to want to support.”
Indeed. He’s been in the news, on the radio, and on Good Morning Britain with Piers Morgan, who was so impressed that on Monday he promised £ 10,000 of his own money (“It’s great, isn’t it?” Says Captain Tom) and it started yesterday. a campaign for him to be knighted.
It seems that everyone from Carrie Symonds to singer Jason Donovan has embraced her vision. A woman on Twitter suggested naming an NHS hospital Captain Tom Moore.
He was sent to India where he fought in the Arakan Campaign of 1942-3, when the Allies rejected the Japanese in Burma.
Tom, meanwhile, has accepted the challenge, embraced the fuss, and enjoyed every minute. Of course it does. Because it may have been days since his 100th birthday, obviously his party has been canceled, but Captain Tom (as everyone calls him) is sharp, witty, ironic, extremely talkative, completely on the ball and hardly feeling the effects. of all your extra exercise
“My hip sometimes tells me it’s there, but that’s difficult,” he says. “I’m doing something that I enjoy and the end result is even better, right?”
As he talks, about the run down bike he bought for half a crown and did when he was only 12, his officer training and military service in India, and fell in love with his beloved wife Pamela (‘she was slim and attractive and just I loved her ‘): Hannah’s cell phone and home phone sound crazy with interview requests from around the world.
They married in 1968 and two daughters soon followed, Lucy and Hannah. “It was a very happy moment,” he says.
And the total keeps going up … and going up.
Thomas Moore was born in Keighley, West Yorkshire. His mother was a main teacher, his father worked in construction, and he went to the local primary school and then trained as a civil engineer. “I was always a very practical boy,” he says.
“The kind of toys I liked would be a piece of wood, some nails, and a hammer, that would keep me very happy, and I learned very quickly that if you hit your fingers, you wouldn’t do it again.”
He was drafted into the Army when he was 20, along with, as he likes to say, his role model, the Queen.
“She and I were together in her father’s army, she was a junior,” she says. Captain Tom loves the queen. “She is fantastic and very strong and sensitive and her heart is in the right place,” he says. ‘I don’t think anyone has ever had a queen like us. We are very fortunate. “
Meanwhile, he joined the 145th Royal Armored Corps Regiment, was selected for officer training in 1940, and rose to the rank of captain.
He was sent to India where he fought in the Arakan Campaign of 1942-3, when the Allies rejected the Japanese in Burma. Her late sister, Freda, was also recruited and joined the ATS in Lincolnshire, plotting the German planes when they arrived.
It wasn’t until the late 1960s, after a stint at the School of Armored Combat Vehicles followed by a change in sales, and when he had almost given up hope of settling down and having a family, he met Pamela.
He had a battle with skin cancer a while back, and a couple of years ago, he had a fall in the kitchen where he broke his hip and cut his head off.
He lived in Yorkshire and worked as a sales manager for a roofing company. Pamela worked at the company headquarters in Gravesend, Kent.
“ As it happened, the office manager in Gravesend was a pretty attractive young lady, I thought she was great, as a model, so I had to make several trips and, let’s say, the attraction with the office manager grew stronger and I finally married her, ” he says, and suddenly he got a little pink on the cheeks.
He was 50 years old, she was 35. They married in 1968 and two daughters, Lucy and Hannah, soon followed. “It was a very happy moment,” he says.
Pamela loved nothing more than a trip to Marks & Spencer. “That was the day of his dreams, so we did it a lot,” he says. Meanwhile, Tom loved playing on motorcycles, smashing the engines and fantasizing about the car of his dreams.
“It is not a high-speed Ferrari or the like, but a four-wheel vehicle that helps me get through the muddy parts of life.” Eventually, after working hard: “I always liked the idea of money and was ambitious. From job to job ‘- and getting into a property in Spain, he retired at age 72. But he was never the type to scoff at. crossword puzzles or pottery in the garden. “My father was an enthusiastic gardener but, for me, everything takes so long,” he says. ‘If you put seeds, there’s no use going back and waiting, it takes a long time. I have no patience for that. “
For the past 12 years, she has been living with her daughter Hannah, her husband Colin, and their children, Georgia and Benjie, in the town of Marston Moretaine in Bedfordshire.
So she kept going with her motors and motorcycles, and when Pamela got sick 20 years ago, she took care of her at home for the first two years and then visited her every day in a house for the last four, feeding her and just sitting . with her.
“It was his brain that died in silence,” he says.
When he passed away in 2006, he promised to get on with things: “What else can you do?”
For the past 12 years, she has been living with her daughter Hannah, her husband Colin, and their children, Georgia and Benjie, in the town of Marston Moretaine in Bedfordshire.
But it has remained relentlessly independent.
So, it’s Captain Tom, 99, who lets the dogs out when he gets up, at 6.30 am sharp, to grab his morning porridge.
She prepares all her meals, nowadays mostly soft foods due to a problem in her throat: “I dream of steak and fries, oh yes, please!” At night, he loves the news and sees Judge Judy on television and doesn’t have a van with naps.
“Even though I find that as an old man I sit in my chair and find that the TV show has suddenly changed!” He laughs.
However, there has been a strange hiccup along the way.
He had a battle with skin cancer a while back, and a couple of years ago, he had a fall in the kitchen where he broke his hip and cut his head off.
“I tangled my own feet, fell, and hit my head in the dishwasher,” he says.
“It still has a little dent!” But thanks to the NHS, he soon bounced back in his classy navy jacket and pants and will always be grateful.
‘They are wonderful. Incredible. They have seen and cared about Pamela. I just wanted to thank you. “Well, he already has, many times.
There is something very special about Captain Tom. Not only his modesty, stoicism and dry humor, but also his optimism, even in the current crisis.
“I think people generally do very well,” he says. “Of course, some people are worried about what might happen to them, but you have to look on the bright side and think, ‘It won’t be me.'”
That is certainly his opinion.
‘I do not have time for that. I’m too busy, “he says.
Because although he will complete his 100 laps on Thursday, he has no intention of stopping soon.
“I’m going to keep going, until my birthday and beyond,” he says firmly. “As long as people keep giving money, I will keep walking.”
You can donate to Tom’s magnificent charity campaign by going to justgiving.com/fundraising/tomswalkforthenhs
