Coronavirus entry 9: Happy 100th Birthday Captain Tom Moore!

A few weeks ago, Captain Tom Moore, a 99 year old World War 2 veteran, was living his life with his family and friends, when he had an idea to support NHS staff and volunteers working with Covid-19 patients. His aim was to walk 100 laps of his back garden, which is 25m in length, and raise £1000 before his birthday on 30th April.

Now, somewhere within the midst of Tom and his family setting this up and sharing their Just Giving page, the universe had a bigger plan and within 24 hours they had reached their target, and so decided to set the bar even higher and increase their fundraising to £100,000. 

After sending out a tweet, it wasn't long before Tom was appearing on Good Morning Britain being interviewed by Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid. By this time, there had been so many donations they were now looking at raising half a million pounds, of which he was almost halfway there! During the interview, Piers donated £10,000 of his own money to the cause and encouraged everyone make a donation of some sort, big or small, to help.

What happened next, was absolutely phenomenal. Captain Tom became the most well known 99 year old, not just in England, but world wide! Everyone wanted to interview him, and most importantly, everyone wanted to make a donation. His story touched the hearts of so many people and even after reaching the £1 million pound mark, donations were still coming in and to date, he has now raised a staggering £32,330,609!

Since then, he has received a promotion to honorary Colonel by Lt Col Thomas Miller, commanding officer of the 1st Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment. He has also joined forces with Michael Ball and got to number 1 in the UK charts with a rendition of "You'll never walk alone" and an estimated, 140,000 birthday cards have been sent to him from people all over the world. 

Today, he has celebrated his 100th birthday and of course, there was something very special he received in the post - a personalised card from the Queen! Boris Johnson also delivered a televised birthday message to him and a flypast took place over his house of a Spitfire and Hurricane from RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, based at RAF Coningsby. Not only that, his neighbours have been celebrating with him and making sure he has a day to remember! ,.

"Tom was born and brought up in Keighley, Yorkshire. He went to Keighley Grammar School and later completed an apprenticeship as a Civil Engineer. Tom went onto being enlisted in 8 DWR (145 RAC) at the beginning of the war, and in 1940 was selected for Officer training. He was later posted to 9DWR in India, and served and fought on the Arakan, went to Regiment to Sumatra after the Japanese surrender and returned to be Instructor at Armoured Fighting Vehicle School in Bovington." (Taken from Just Giving page)

The best thing about this is how much Tom has captured the hearts of the nation and brought everyone together to show their appreciation of not just the NHS, but of someone looking to do a good deed. Everyone has been talking about this wonderful man, and it has brought smiles to so many of our faces during such a difficult time. There is no doubt about it, he will always be remembered for this.

Happy 100th Birthday, Colonel Tom Moore. I am raising a glass to you now and wishing you a wonderful day. 

Cheers!