Captain Sir Tom Moore dies in hospital with coronavirus

Shafaq News/-Britain’s Captain Tom Moore, the World War Two veteran who lifted a nation’s spirits by raising millions of pounds for health service workers battling the coronavirus, died on Tuesday aged 100 after he contracted COVID-19.

Moore struck a chord with locked-down Britain by walking around his garden with the help of a frame to raise 38.9 million pounds ($53 million) for the National Health Service.

His endeavor and wit spread joy amid the grim news of the coronavirus outbreak: Moore’s message to the world was that the sun would shine again and that the clouds would clear.

“It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our dear father, Captain Sir Tom Moore,” his daughters said in a statement following his death on Tuesday morning at Bedford Hospital in central England.

Over the last five years, he had been receiving treatment for prostate and skin cancer, his family said. He was fighting pneumonia and was taken to hospital after testing positive for COVID-19 on Jan. 22, unable to be vaccinated due to the other medication he was taking.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Queen Elizabeth led the tributes to Moore, whose exploits won global admiration.

“Captain Tom Moore was a hero in the truest sense of the word,” said Johnson, who spoke to Moore’s daughter Hannah to pass on his condolences. “He became not just a national inspiration but a beacon of hope for the world.”

Raised in Yorkshire, northern England, Moore served in India, Burma and Sumatra during World War Two.

Soldiers from the First Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment, the successor to his own, gave him a guard of honor when he completed the 100th length of the garden on April 16, 2020.

Moore found words to cheer up the British public during lockdown, his status as a war veteran adding to his standing.