[imagesource: Twitter]

Winston Churchill may have left behind a complicated legacy that divides opinion, but he said something following World War II that resonates now.

“It was the nation and the race dwelling all around the globe that had the lion heart”.

World War II tank commander Captain Tom Moore has the “lion heart”. He served his country in that war, and he is now taking up the call again in the face of a global pandemic.

At the ripe old age of 99, Captain Moore donned his uniform and is “walking for the NHS”.

The Telegraph with more:

The army veteran, who will turn 100 on April 30, has been raising funds for the NHS Charities Together organisation and says health workers are “national heroes”.

Captain Tom, as he is known, has been completing 10 laps a day of his garden, which is 25 metres in length, in Marston Moretaine, Beds, since the weekend before Easter.

He reached his initial target of £1 000 in only 24 hours, and passed £100 000 a day later. By day three, he had accumulated over £250 000.

Captian Moore enlisted into the eighth battalion of the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment during the war, before converting to operate Churchill tanks as part of the Royal Armoured Corps.

Selected for Officer training in 1940, he rose to the rank of Captain and served in 8 DWR (145 RAC), later being posted to 9 DWR in India. He served and fought on the Arakan, western Burma – nowadays renamed Rakhine State – and went with his Regiment to Sumatra after the Japanese surrender. On return to the UK he was posted as an Instructor to the Armoured Fighting Vehicle School in Bovington.

He has received treatment in recent years from the NHS for skin cancer, and later for a broken hip.

A bad hip isn’t going to stop him from doing his bit to help out.

Look at him go:

Captain Moore has, at the time of writing, raised close to £5 million for the NHS.

“I can get about slowly [but] most people don’t want me to run about too fast,” he said.

“I can manage and will continue to manage as long as I possibly can.”

Every morning, Captain Moore lets his dogs out and reads the newspaper, before heading off into the garden to complete his 10 laps.

By last weekend he had completed 50 laps and said he hoped to continue after reaching his goal, so grateful was he for the “super good nurses” who looked after him.

“Good luck to them,” he said. “I hope that’s why people have contributed to the national health service fund. They deserve so much more than we can possibly give them.”

The money that he has raised will be used to generate wellbeing packs for NHS staff and for sprucing up rest and recuperation rooms.

It’s worth mentioning that the NHS shouldn’t have to be funded by efforts like this, but after years of funding cuts and lies from those in power, I guess it’s a necessary evil.

When asked how he thinks the nation can overcome the coronavirus crisis, he had this to say:

“Tomorrow you will maybe find everything will be much better than today, even if today was alright. That’s the way I think I’ve always looked at it. Tomorrow will be a good day.”

Bless him.

You can follow his progress on Twitter (he is 99 and has a Twitter account – this man is an international treasure).

Captain Moore, we salute you.

[source:telegraph]