A 99-year-old war veteran has raised more than ￡4 million (US$5 million) for the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) by aiming to walk 100 lengths of his back garden before his 100th birthday.
Tom Moore, from Keighley in Yorkshire, initially planned to raise ￡1,000 through the challenge.
However, after launching his campaign on Wednesday last week and raising ￡70,000 in just 24 hours, he extended his fundraiser and hit the ￡1 million target on Tuesday morning. By 3:30pm he had reached ￡2 million and passed ￡3m early in the evening
Photo: AFP / Maytrix Group / Handout
“It’s almost unbelievable isn’t it,” Moore told the BBC. “But when you think who it’s for, and they’re all so brave… I think they deserve every penny of it.”
He is walking 10 laps of the garden a day with the help of his walker, and had hoped to hit 100 laps in time for his birthday on April 30 — but according to his daughter, Hannah, he is likely to reach his goal today.
“I think it’s absolutely fabulous,” Moore said. “I really am pleased to be doing this and serving our nurses and our doctors and all our people in our National Health Service.”
Moore served in World War II, after being selected for officer training in 1940, and completing postings in India and Sumatra. He later served as an instructor at an armored fighting vehicle school in England.
“Our brave nurses and doctors are front-line in this case … this time our army are in doctors and nurses uniforms and they’re doing a marvelous job,” Moore said.
Hannah said although her father was overwhelmed when he raised ￡1 million, he responded with a determination to walk more.
“He’s a typical Yorkshireman, so he’s very stoic, very controlled and takes everything in his stride,” she said. “We always knew that he was this incredible gem of a man, but we never had any idea that his story would capture the hearts of the nation.”
“We thought we could give people a little bit of happy and we wanted to share a little bit about him, and it has just gone beyond even our wildest, wildest dreams,” she said.
All the money Moore raises will be donated to NHS Charities Together to go toward well-being packs, and rest and recuperation centers for staff on the front-line, as well as electronic devices for patients to communicate with their families while in isolation.
An American scientist convicted of lying to US authorities about payments from China while he was at Harvard University has rebuilt his research lab in Shenzhen, China, to pursue technology the Chinese government has identified as a national priority: embedding electronics into the human brain. Charles Lieber, 67, is among the world’s leading researchers in brain-computer interfaces. The technology has shown promise in treating conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and restoring movement in paralyzed people. It also has potential military applications: Scientists at the Chinese People’s Liberation Army have investigated brain interfaces as a way to engineer super soldiers by boosting
Jailed media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai (黎智英) has been awarded Deutsche Welle’s (DW) freedom of speech award for his contribution to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. The German public broadcaster on Thursday said Lai would be presented in absentia with the 12th iteration of the award on June 23 at the DW Global Media Forum in Bonn. Deutsche Welle director-general Barbara Massing praised the 78-year-old founder of the now-shuttered news outlet Apple Daily for standing “unwaveringly for press freedom in Hong Kong at great personal risk.” “With Apple Daily, he gave journalists a platform for free reporting and a voice to the democracy movement in
PHILIPPINE COMMITTEE: The head of the committee that made the decision said: ‘If there is nothing to hide, there is no reason to hide, there is no reason to obstruct’ A Philippine congressional committee on Wednesday ruled that there was “probable cause” to impeach Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte after hearing allegations of unexplained wealth, misuse of state funds and threats to have the president assassinated. The unanimous decision of the 53-member committee in the Philippine House of Representatives sends the two impeachment complaints to deliberations and voting by the entire lower chamber, which has more than 300 lawmakers. The complaints centered on Duterte’s alleged illegal use and mishandling of intelligence funds from the vice president’s office, and from her time as education secretary under Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Duterte and the
As evening falls in Fiji’s capital, a steady stream of people approaches a makeshift clinic that is a first line of defense against one of the world’s fastest-growing HIV epidemics. In the South Pacific nation — a popular tourist destination of just under a million people — more than 2,000 new HIV cases were recorded last year, a 26 percent increase from 2024. The government has declared an HIV outbreak and described it as a national crisis. “It’s spreading like wildfire,” said Siteri Dinawai, 46, who came to be tested. The Moonlight Clinic, a converted minibus parked in a suburban cul-de-sac in Suva, is
RSS