Good News Worth Sharing: A 99-Year-Old Man Has Raised £8Million For The NHS Doing Laps In His Garden

A 99-year-old has raised over £8million for the NHS to combat Covid-19 by walking the length of his garden 100 times before his 100th birthday on 30 April. Hoping to raise £1,000, he has surpassed his total in a dramatic fashion in nine days.

Captain Tom Moore, from Yorkshire, started the JustGiving page – via his daughter, Hannah – on 9 April, with his family posting a YouTube video announcing a 100th birthday walk. Raising money for NHS Charities Together, his daughter told viewers he wanted to support ‘the incredible care he has received over the last 18 months’.

Walking back and forth in his garden, which is 25meters in length, 100 times before his birthday, he aims to walk a total of 2.5km by doing 10 laps a day. ‘After I broke my hip, I had some marvellous service from all the staff [at the NHS],’ he told BBC Breakfast. ‘The patience and the kindness that I got from all of them, top to bottom, was absolutely amazing.

‘So anybody who is helping me with the NHS, I’d be very pleased because they’ve done so well for me and they’re doing so well for everybody else at the moment that I think we must day “well done NHS”.'

Using his walker, Tom told reporters he gets around ‘with difficulty’ but that ‘some have it a lot worse': ‘I can get about but slowly,’ he said. ‘So as long as people don’t want me to run about too fast I can manage, and will continue to manage as long as I possibly can.’

Posting daily updates on YouTube, Tom has received celebrity support from Anton DuBeke, Jason Donovan and more - so far, more than 100,000 people have donated to his Just Giving page. After eaching the £1 million mark, the family posted an update saying ‘We are so thrilled, and so glad to be able to unite our country at such a sad time and all for our incredible NHS. Tom would like to thank all of you, from the bottom of his heart.’

We can’t wait to see what he has to say about raising £8million just one day later.

To donate to Tom, click here.

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