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Posts Tagged ‘99-year-old’

2020-04-15-coronavirus-veteran

Photo: Peter Cziborra/Reuters
Tom Moore, 99, a retired British army captain, walks to raise money for health workers in the pandemic. His initial goal was to walk the length of his garden 100 times before his 100th birthday April 30. He did it and is still going strong.

Public Radio International  (PRI) is a wonderful service. It covers stories from around the world with greater depth than most egocentric US outlets. Sometimes PRI’s stories take off, like this one, which you may have already heard from another news source.

It’s about 99-year-old World War II veteran Captain Tom Moore, who feels deep gratitude to the health-care workers who looked after him in previous illnesses and made up his mind to help them during a pandemic that puts them at risk.

From PRI on Instagram: “He did it! Today, 99-year-old World War II veteran Captain Tom Moore achieved the goal he set up for himself earlier this month: to walk the length of his back garden 100 times before his 100th birthday on April 30.

“But Captain Moore didn’t walk just for recreation. He was also raising money for Britain’s national health service (NHS), now strained because of the coronavirus pandemic. He raised an astonishing 16 million GBP, or nearly $20 million — way above his initial fundraising goal of 1,000 GBP, or $1,200.

“Moore said he wanted to thank NHS workers for the care he received while recovering from skin cancer and a broken hip.

‘The patience and the kindness that I’ve got from all of them from top to bottom was absolutely amazing. So, anybody who is helping with me and the National Health Service, I’d be very pleased, because they’ve done so well for me and they’re doing so well for everybody else at the moment,’ Captain Moore said. ‘I think we must say “Well done, National Health Service.” ‘ “

Listen online to the PRI story, here. And do make PRI part of your ongoing routine. Yesterday alone it had a slew of intriguing topics, and its presentation of international music is as good as I’ve heard anywhere:

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