Friday 19th February 2021
Fundraising for the NHS
103-year-old follows in the footsteps of Sir Tom
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They are not only namesakes but also brothers in spirit: Tom Jones is emulating his role model Sir Tom Moore and collecting donations for the British health service NHS. The 103-year-old is very proud of his first successes.
Tom Jones follows in the footsteps of the record fundraiser “Captain Tom”. Since his 103rd birthday on Tuesday, the great-grandfather has been doing one lap after the other in the garden of his old people’s home, as the PA news agency reported. Pictures show Jones – “not the singer,” as he says – in a striped suit and tie. So far, the senior has raised just under 2000 pounds (around 2300 euros) in donations for a local hospice – a little less than his role model Sir Tom Moore.
“Captain Tom” had tested positive for the coronavirus after pneumonia and died in early February. The news of his death was received with great dismay across the country. According to information from Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II Moore’s family also wrote a personal condolence. She had knighted him last July.
Moore had become a national celebrity when he solicited donations for the NHS national health service by pacing his garden a hundred times before his 100th birthday last April. The action was so popular that he ended up raising £ 33 million for the NHS.
Jones, who has lived in a retirement home in Bexleyheath around 70 kilometers south-east of London for nine years, also wants to pay tribute to the work of the health and care staff with his campaign. “I was so happy that I can somehow help,” he told the PA. “On Wednesday I did 1.44 miles (2.3 kilometers), which is not bad for a 103-year-old.”
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