TOM MOORE, a 99-year-old British war veteran, completed 100 laps of his garden on Thursday (16), raising more than £13 million for the health service in an endeavour that has sown joy across the country amid the coronavirus gloom.
"For all those people who are finding it difficult at the moment: the sun will shine on you again and the clouds will go away," said Moore, dressed in a blazer and tie and displaying his war medals, after completing his walk.
Retired army captain Moore, who has used a rollator to move around since breaking his hip, set himself the target of walking the 25 metres around his garden 100 times before his 100th birthday on April 30.
His feat drew praise from around the country -- and even a salute from soldiers in the regiment which replaced his own. Raised in Yorkshire, northern England, Moore served in India, Burma and Sumatra during the Second World War.
The BBC tweeted a video of Moore completing the walk, with the caption: "He's done it!"
Moore received a guard of honour from soldiers from the First Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment, the successor to his Duke of Wellington's regiment, as he completed his final lap.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Moore's achievement was a "shaft of light" in the darkness of the COVID-19 crisis, he said.
"Captain Tom, what an inspiration to us all."
Chancellor Rishi Sunak praised Moore's "Yorkshire grit".
Moore said the £13 million was an "absolutely fantastic sum of money".
"It's unbelievable that people would be so kind to give that sort of money to the National Health Service," he said.
Moore's family said they had fielded interest from as far afield as the United States, France and Australia.
Son-in-law Colin Ingram said raising money for the health service had given Moore a new lease of life.
"He's coming down in the morning sprightly and loving it," Ingram told Reuters.
Said Moore: "You've all got to remember that we will get through it in the end, it will all be right, it might take time.
"At the end of the day we shall all be okay again."
He added that he had been inspired by the care he received from Britain's state-run health service when he broke his hip and when he was treated for cancer.
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