100-Year-Old Veteran Who Raised Millions Walking For Health Workers Dies Of COVID-19

 

A 100-year-old British World II veteran who raised millions for frontline health workers by walking 100 laps in his garden died Tuesday from COVID-19.

Captain Sir Thomas Moore was admitted to Bedford Hospital on Sunday after he came down with the virus, according to the BBC.

Moore became a household name in the U.K. last April when he set out to walk 100 laps to raise funds for the healthcare workers that attended to patients in the virus-ravaged country. His goal, which was to raise 1000 pounds by his 100th birthday, went viral and moved people worldwide to donate to the cause and eventually raised 33 million pounds, or $44 million.When he hit five million pounds, Moore said:

When we started off with this exercise we didn’t anticipate we’d get anything near that sort of money. It’s really amazing. All of them, from top to bottom, in the National Health Service, they deserve everything that we can possibly put in their place. They’re all so brave. Because every morning or every night they’re putting themselves into harm’s way, and I think you’ve got to give them full marks for that effort. We’re a little bit like having a war at the moment. But the doctors and the nurses, they’re all on the front line, and all of us behind, we’ve got to supply them and keep them going with everything that they need, so that they can do their jobs even better than they’re doing now.

During another interview while he was walking, Moore said, “Please always remember, tomorrow will be a good day.” The words would become his catchphrase, as well as the title of his autobiography, which was published September 2020.A military honor guard attended his final lap and, in July, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him.

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“Her Majesty very much enjoyed meeting Capt. Sir Tom and his family at Windsor last year. Her thoughts, and those of the royal family, are with them, recognising the inspiration he provided for the whole nation and others across the world,” a spokesperson for the queen said.

Born April 30, 1920, in Keighley, England, Moore was drafted into the army eight months into World War II, and was later trained as an officer. A member of the Fourteenth Army, he was stationed in India and also served in present-day Myanmar.

After the war, he worked at his family’s construction firm, which later failed. He later became a sales manager for a company that made concrete.

“The last year of our father’s life was nothing short of remarkable. He was rejuvenated and experienced things he’d only ever dreamed of,” Moore’s family said in a Tuesday statement. “Whilst he’d been in so many hearts for just a short time, he was an incredible father and grandfather, and he will stay alive in our hearts forever.’’

Moore wrote in his autobiography: “People told me that there was something about my little walk that captured the hearts of those still in shock at the crisis. With a rising number of deaths and the prospect of months of lockdown, everyone was desperate for good news. Apparently, a 99-year-old former Army captain who’d fought in Burma, was recovering from a broken hip, and doing his bit for the NHS was just what they needed.”