Captain Tom Moore's NHS fundraising campaign hits £30m as birthday wishes flood in

Rebecca Speare-Cole30 April 2020

Captain Tom Moore has now raised a staggering £30m for the NHS in its battle against coronavirus as he celebrates his 100th birthday.

The WWII veteran set out to raise £1,000 by walking around his garden 100 times, but hit £30m on Thursday morning as wishes flooded in for his landmark birthday.

His determination has captured the public imagination and he has quickly become a national treasure as well as a symbol of hope during the Covid-19 pandemic.

After hitting £30m, Captain Tom tweeted: “£30 Million! THANK YOU everyone you are all magnificent.”

The fundraising page is set to close at midnight tonight.

Captain Tom’s daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore soon told BBC Breakfast: “Who could have written it? I don’t think anyone, if you’d tried to make it up, you just couldn’t have done it.

“We started four weeks ago almost with our humble but resolute target of £1,000.

“There was no science to it, it was what it was, we thought we could tell a lovely story, raise some money for charity, for a really good cause and have some fun.

Captain Tom Moore's 100th Birthday Flypast - In pictures

1/20

“Not even four weeks later, who could have known we’d have been on the journey that we’ve been on, with the amazing British public supporting us and from around the world.

“It’s embedded in our hearts forever.”

Captain Tom Moore has thanked his supporters, saying he has been "absolutely delighted" with the thousands of birthday wishes he had received.

It comes as the fundraising hero was honoured with an RAF flypast as a hurricane and spitfire looped over his home in Bedfordshire three times to salute Captain Tom.

He waved as he watched the flypast over his home.

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson wished him happy birthday, saying: "I know I speak for the whole nation when I wish you a very happy 100th birthday."

Captain Tom Moore's 100th Birthday Card Presentation - In pictures

1/5

Captain Tom also become the honorary colonel of the Army Foundation College in Harrogate for his 100th birthday, with the appointment being approved by the Queen.

Meanwhile, Michael Vaughan made the avid cricket fan an honorary member of the England team to mark his 100th birthday and has received around 140,000 birthday cards.

NHS Charities Together has also wished Capt Tom a happy birthday and paid tribute to him after he raised more than £30 million for the organisation.

Ellie Orton, chief executive of NHS Charities Together, said: “Captain Tom’s incredible dedication to our appeal has captured the hearts and minds of the UK – and rightly so – what he has achieved will make a lasting difference.

“The funds he’s managed to raise will not only help frontline NHS staff and volunteers and their patients immediately, but it will also be used to support them as we deal with the repercussions of the pandemic.

Captain Tom pumps his fist into the air during the RAF flypast
PA

“We cannot thank him enough for all that he’s achieved and we wish him a very happy birthday, and look forward to continuing to ensure that what he’s done is used to improve the lives of the NHS staff and volunteers that are giving so much to their communities at the moment.”

His daughter later said the family has now told him to take a rest after a big morning of festivities.

Ms Ingram-Moore told BBC Breakfast: “We’ve said ‘look, take a little rest now’. But I think we know that he has touched the hearts of many people around the world.

Captain Tom Moore - In pictures

1/68

“He’s definitely engaged us all and given us hope and unity.

“So, there will be legacy. We, as a family, have come a long way in these last few weeks, and we are working hard to look at what is the future, what’s the future legacy, but he needs to have a little rest now.”

“No more walking for now. He has insisted that he will be walking again but we’ve said ‘please, just take a little bit of rest’,” she said.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in