Hero war veteran Captain Tom Moore launched a fundraising campaign to help support NHS staff and carers through the coronavirus pandemic. After kicking off his campaign with a £1,000 goal, Captain Moore has since raised over £12million and the Queen has now been urged to mark his achievement with a knighthood before he turns 100. Asked how he would react to meeting Her Majesty, the 99-year-old told Good Morning Britain: “I would say, ‘Your Majesty, this is the greatest honour anyone could get, to stand here before you, because you are such a marvellous and perfect person.’
“But I would also like to say to her, ‘remember when you and I were in your father’s army a long time ago?’
“Because, remember, the Queen was in the army in the wartime and she served as well as she could at that age, at that time.”
And asked to issue a message to the thousands of NHS carers he has been helping, Captain Moore said: “You’re doing a marvellous, marvellous job.
“Please remember that tomorrow is a good day and we shall all get through it in the end.
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“We’ve fought so many battles and we have always won and this time we are going to win again.”
Captain Moore pledged to take 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday on April 30 with the goal of raising £1,000 to support NHS staff taking care of Covid-19 patients.
With 14 days to go before the celebrations, the veteran war here already took 96 of the 25-metre laps and smashed fundraising records on the Just Giving platform by collecting well over £12 million.
The 99-year-old suggested he might continue to take laps around his garden now he is so close to achieving his objective.
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Speaking to Sky News on Thursday morning, Captain Moore said: “We set out originally to raise a little bit of money by me walking up and down 100 times in reference to my 100th birthday.
“But if I’ve done the 100 by tomorrow, I’ll have to continue past my birthday, which won’t matter because I’ll continue walking while people are contributing money to a marvellous fund for the NHS.
“With this invisible enemy that we’ve got, we’ve all got to look forward to the future when we’ve beaten this enemy.
“Whatever people think, we shall get better. Things will be better tomorrow.”
Captain Moore’s efforts inspired 8-year old Reegan Davies to launch her own campaign to collect a minimum of 1,500 individual birthday cards to mark the Captain’s work.
Young Reegan shared a video on Twitter in which she urged children and adults alike to send Tom their birthday wishes.
In the video, she said: “You’ve got to make a birthday card for Tom, any social media you post it, and tag #makeacardfortom.”
Captain Moore was born in Keighley, West Yorkshire, in 1920 and later trained as a civil engineer, joining the Army at the outbreak of World War II. He rose to the grade of Captain and served in India and Burma.
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