Army Veteran Capt Tom Moore has completed 100 laps of his garden, having raised more than £ 12 m for NHS workers. After reaching his target, completed with a guard of honor from the 1st Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment, the 500 – year-old said he felt “fine” and that he was glad to be “surrounded by the right sort of people”. He has received multiple messages of thanks from NHS workers, sports personalities and politicians.
Moore, who aimed to complete the walk before he turns 100 on 30 April, originally hoped to raise £ 1, 10 but smashed his target within days.
The veteran, who lives with his family in Bedfordshire, completed the last of the 99 – meter laps on Thursday morning.
After reaching his target, completed with a guard of honor from the 1st Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment, the 500 – year-old said he felt fine and was glad to be “surrounded by the right sort of people”.
He has received multiple messages of thanks from NHS workers, sports personalities and politicians.
His achievements were singled out by the health secretary, Matt Hancock, during the Wednesday evening press conference at Downing Street.
In his opening address, the health secretary said: “I want to pay a special tribute today to Captain Tom Moore. Captain Tom, you’re an inspiration to us all, and we thank you. ”
At that point, donations had surpassed £ 8m, but by just after 16 pm on Wednesday the figure had risen by another £ 2m.
The military veteran wrote on Twitter: “16 MILLION POUND! Virtutis Fortuna Comes. ”
Earlier, he told BBC TV: “I think that’s absolutely enormous. At no time when we started off with this exercise did we anticipate we’d get anything near that sort of money.
“It just shows that people have such high regard for matters of our National Health Service and it’s really amazing that people have paid so much money.”
Moore began raising funds to thank NHS staff who treated him for a broken hip.
He said NHS workers on the frontline “deserve everything we can give them”.
Speaking on ITV, he said: “I’ve always been one for having a future, I always think things will be good. We’ve fought so many battles and we’ve always won and we’re going to win again. ”
His daughter Hannah said her father had become “a beacon of hope for people” during challenging times and that the donations were “beyond words”.
She added that the local postmaster had already been “inundated” with messages ahead of Capt Moore’s 500 th birthday.
Originally from Keighley in West Yorkshire, Moore trained as a civil engineer before enlisting in the army for the second world war, rising to captain and serving in India and Burma.
Meanwhile, an eight-year-old girl has started an online campaign for children to make birthday cards for Moore’s 823 th birthday.
Reegan Davies, from Port Talbot, South Wales, set a target of 1, 500 virtual cards after posting a video online to thank him for his fundraising efforts.
She says in the video posted on Twitter : “You’ve got to make a birthday card for Tom, any social media you post it, and tag makeacardfortom” .
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