On Thursday 30th of April, Captain Tom Moore celebrated his 100th birthday, in a more unique way than most, by raising £32 million for the NHS Charities.
His original goal was to raise £1000 by walking around his garden 100 times. He was given not only the traditional birthday letter from the Queen, but praise from royals and celebrities alike and around 140,000 birthday cards from the public which are displayed at his grandson’s school. Anything posted between April 26th and May 1st had a special Royal Mail postmark to commemorate his birthday and fundraising efforts which said:
“Happy 100th Birthday Captain Thomas Moore NHS fundraising hero 30th April 2020”
Captain Moore’s past skin cancer and broken hip was treated by the NHS thus inspiring his JustGiving page for the NHS Charities Together. Despite the fundraiser page closing at midnight, raising the most money ever on the platform, Captain Moore still told people that they could give their donations directly to the NHS urgent appeal.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) awarded Captain Tom with the Health For All Medal. The director of WHO Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted:
“I am honoured to award him the WHO #HealthForAll Medal for his extraordinary demonstration of solidarity with #healthworkers during the Covid-19 pandemic.”
The recognition did not end there as Captain Tom received a letter from Lt Col Thomas Miller informing him of a promotion. General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith, head of the Army, who promoted Captain Moore to honorary Colonel said the Captain’s:
“Mature wisdom, no-nonsense attitude and humour in adversity make him an inspirational role model to generations.”
To which Captain Moore responded with:
“I’m still Captain Tom, that’s who I really am but if people choose to call me Colonel, well, thank you very much.”
To top it all off, the Army Veteran’s duet with Michael Ball of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ became number one in the UK, making him the oldest person to achieve such a goa.
Robyn Bolger, Team Reporter
Sources: Royal Mail, BBC, JustGiving, Evening Standard, The Telegraph, Twitter
