Yahoo News Coronavirus: 'Amazed' war hero, 99, passes £8m mark with NHS garden fundraiser
A 99-year-old war veteran who challenged himself to walk 100 lengths of his garden has now raised more than £8m for the NHS.
Capt Tom Moore, who served in India and Burma, originally set out to raise £1,000 for NHS Charities Together – but a burst of donations on Tuesday saw that sum pledged on average every 20 seconds.
The fundraiser had topped £1m as of 9am on Tuesday, before surpassing £4m by 11pm. On Wednesday afternoon, a further deluge of donations took the total beyond the £8m mark.
6 MILLION POUNDS!!
Thank you everyone, this is all for our incredible @NHSCharities #walkwithtom #TomorrowWillBeAGoodDay— Captain Tom Moore (@captaintommoore) April 15, 2020
Earlier in the day his JustGiving page crashed, with more than 90,000 people trying to access it at once.
On Wednesday, Moore’s Twitter account said he had another 10 laps to do today.
Good morning everyone - Another lovely day and we have just looked at the amazing total this morning. Thank you so much to the British public who have offered their support for our incredible @NHSuk.
I have another 10 laps to do today.#walkwithtom#TomorrowWillBeAGoodDay— Captain Tom Moore (@captaintommoore) April 15, 2020
‘It’s like a fairy land’
Moore, originally from Keighley in Yorkshire, is aiming to walk 100 lengths of his Bedfordshire garden before he turns 100 on 30 April.
He has been praised by a range of famous faces. Piers Morgan has said he plans to lead a campaign to get him knighted.
Speaking about the fundraising efforts, Moore told BBC News: “It seems almost like fairy land to think that we started off at 1,000 to a sum of money that’s not believable, is it?”
Moore, who recently had a hip operation, is ahead of schedule with his walking, and now hopes to finish the challenge by Thursday.
His fundraiser has led more than 200,000 individual donors to sponsor him for his 100 laps.
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Moore, who trained as a civil engineer before enlisting in the army for the Second World War and rising to captain, said: “I never imagined anything like this, but I’m so pleased, and I hope it just goes on because the services I got from all these doctors and nurses was absolutely outstanding.
“And they’re such nice people too.”
Donations to NHS Charities Together can be made at Moore’s fundraising page here.
