Twitter | @DaviesReegan

99-Year-Old Veteran Raises $8.7 Million For Health Services With Birthday Walk

Updated September 3, 2021

When times get tough, we can see people show some incredible sides of themselves. Although every situation is a little different, it's not unheard of to see neighbors who normally can't stand each other race in to help when the circumstances are truly dire.

And when the circumstances they're dealing with exist on a bigger scale than a house fire or an individual crime, some people can still demonstrate some truly incredible ways of helping.

While we're going to discuss how that relates to the story of one remarkable man today, the community that surrounds him is also very much a part of what makes today's story great.

Before he stole the internet's heart, 99-year-old Tom Moore of Marston Moretaine, England was a captain in the British armed forces.

Twitter | @captaintommoore

As the BBC reported, the medals that now adorn his jacket were earned during World War II on missions conducted in India and was then known as Burma (now Myanmar).

In recent years, however, he was inspired toward yet another incredible achievement.

Twitter | @captaintommoore

Given the strain that the current pandemic has put on Britain's National Health Service, he thought of an idea to raise money for them before his 100th birthday hits on April 30.

As the BBC reported, he was inspired to do this by the "magnificent" NHS workers who previously treated him for cancer and a broken hip.

So what was his plan? To walk 100 laps of the 82-foot loop around his yard before his birthday.

Twitter | @captaintommoore

Captain Moore intends to do this in 10-lap sets and was hoping that his idea would result in £1,000 raised by Thursday.

By April 14, however, it was clear that the public liked his idea a whole lot more than that as he had already raised £4 million, the equivalent of $5 million USD.

At the time of this writing, that number has jumped to £7 million, or $8.7 million USD.

Twitter | @captaintommoore

This was the result of over 345,000 people donating to his fundraiser, which has inspired him to walk yet another 100 laps. As he tweeted out, the site hosting Captain Moore's fundraiser nearly crashed due to receiving about 90,000 visitors at once.

As his daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore said, "What the British public has done is given him his next purpose... I think he'll do this until everyone says 'stop, don't do this any more'."

Alnogside the donations, Captain's Moore winning spirit has inspired an even more adorable initiative.

As she explains in this video, 8-year-old Reegan Davies has announced a project for children to make virtual birthday cards for Captain Moore, which can be released via the #makeacardfortom hashtag across various social media.

The goal is for 1,500 of these cards to materialize by April 30.

So between Captain Moore's idea, the public's generous response, and Davies' celebration project, there's a lot to love here.

h/t: BBC

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