Captain Sir Tom Moore made it his mission to raise money for the UK’s National Health Service by doing 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday.
Now, one year and nearly £39 million (US$54 million) later, his family are asking people to follow in his footsteps and come up with their own challenge based around the number 100 that they can complete over what would have been his 101st birthday weekend.
“This is to ensure that that message of hope is his lasting legacy,” said Tom Moore’s daughter, Hannah Ingram-Moore. “He gave us hope, so we’ve got to keep hope going. He said to us: ‘This is yours. I started it, now do it your way.’”
Photo: Reuters
Moore’s laps gained the attention of the UK as it entered the first COVID-19 lockdown. He planned to raise £1,000, a figure he had met several times over by the time he was featured on BBC Breakfast shortly after he started.
Including Gift Aid, that figure now stands at £38.9 million.
He died in February aged 100.
“My father was insisting right until the very end. He was insisting he was going to come back out and keep walking, and raise money. So how can we not do it? He gave us hope as a nation. He represented us around the world as a beacon of hope. He’s passed the mantle on to us,” Ingram-Moore said.
She is encouraging people to run 100m, score 100 goals or bake 100 cakes — whatever they choose. The latter, she said, would have been one of her father’s favorites because he loved Victoria sponge.
She suggested people could build 100 sandcastles, write a 100-word poem or tell 100 people: “Tomorrow will be a good day.”
As for Moore’s family, they plan to continue his legacy by walking their own laps to raise as much money as they can.
Moore would have turned 101 on April 30, and people have been encouraged to meet their challenge that weekend and donate the money to his foundation or another charity. His relatives are particularly hopeful that schools and the armed forces would take on the challenge.
They said the COVID-19 pandemic has had a catastrophic effect on charity fundraising, with the “cancelation of thousands of events and the loss of an estimated £10 billion in income.”
Ingram-Moore was tempted to set a target figure for the fundraising effort, but she said: “We thought we were going to raise £1,000 and we raised £38.9 million, so I don’t think I’m the right person to set a target. I hope that what we do as a nation is get behind this.”
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