A 99-Year-Old Veteran Raises $2.8 Million For UK Health-Care Workers Amid The Coronavirus

A 99-year-old World War II veteran has raised more than £2.2 million ($2.8 million) for workers in the U.K.’s National Health Service during the coronavirus pandemic.

​

With the help of a walking frame, Tom Moore has challenged himself to walk 100 lengths of his backyard, which is 25 meters (82 feet) long, before he turns 100 years old at the end of April.

Moore is doing 10 laps a day in order to complete the challenge.

He decided to take on the challenge after receiving treatment from the NHS for skin cancer and a broken hip, praising health-care workers for their “patience” and “kindness” in a TV interview.

Moore smashed his original fundraising target of £1,000 ($1,257), receiving nearly $2 million in donations on Tuesday alone.

Tom Moore served in the British army in India and Myanmar in World War II.​

Originally from Yorkshire in the northeast of England, Moore served as a soldier in India and Myanmar during the war, after completing an apprenticeship as a civil engineer.

On Twitter, Moore said he was “blown away by the Great British public and their generosity.”

​

Moore is fundraising for NHS Charities Together, which is a campaign generating funds for all the different charities representing Britain’s health service, in order to support health-care workers looking after those affected by the coronavirus.

In the U.K., there have been 89,571 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 11,329 deaths, according to latest data from Johns Hopkins University.

Source