and we have just heard uh the very sad
news that captain sir tom moore has died
at the age of 100
after testing positive for covid19
that's according to a statement from his
daughters
hannah and lucy so captain sir tom
moore who raised so much money 33
million pounds you may remember for the
national
health service he had been taken to
hospital on sunday to
bedford hospital after being treated for
pneumonia
for some time and then testing positive
for the virus let's just bring you
a little bit more on that statement and
the family of captain
tom moore say it is with great sadness
that we announced the death of our dear
father
captain uh sir tom moore
and uh of course there'll be huge
sadness
across the country at that news he had
become really something of a
national treasure after that
extraordinary fundraising
effort let's just read you a bit more of
the statement we have in
from his daughters hannah and lucy
it is with great sadness that we
announced the death of our dear father
we're so grateful that we were with him
during the last hours of his life
we spent hours chatting to him
reminiscing about
our childhood and our wonderful mother
we shared
laughter and tears together the
statement goes on
the last year of our father's life was
nothing short of
remarkable he was rejuvenated and
experienced things
he had only ever dreamt of whilst he had
been
in so many hearts for just a short time
he was an incredible father and
grandfather and he will stay alive in
our hearts
forever well let's look back now on the
life of captain sir tom
uh with our correspondent david silito
it began as a little family challenge
100 laps of the garden to mark
100th birthday and so began tom moore's
extraordinary journey
born in keithley in 1920 he joined the
west yorkshire regiment and served in
burma
after the war he ran a business and
before the virus the closest he'd come
to fame
and appearing this christmas on was an
appearance on black dude
tom have you got a family or anybody
you'd rather not be watching this
yes it's two girls yes coming up 16
coming up
14. but everything changed when his
family set up a fundraising page for
captain tom
the hope was to raise a thousand pounds
for nhs charities
to support the nurses and doctors in the
midst of the coronavirus outbreak
just over a week later the total had
passed a million pounds
and by the time he celebrated his 100th
birthday it had topped
30 million
he also had a number one single
[Music]
he received more than 140 000 cards
the regimental model was made an
honorary colonel
he received a knighthood
and the raf staged a birthday flight
past
i'm absolutely delighted with all the
people like you who
have come to wish me a money happy
birthday
it really is absolutely awesome in a
time of
illness death and global lockdown
captain tom's
optimism and determination truly was a
little beacon of good cheer
i never ever anticipate ever in my life
anything like this
it really is amazing and i'm
saying to everyone thank you very much
to everyone
wherever you are
[Music]
david cylito there on the life of
captain
satomor who has very sadly died
we're just hearing that in the last few
minutes at the age
of 100 and let's just recap on that
statement that we've had in
from the family who were saying that it
is with great sadness that they
announced the death of
their father captain sir tom moore this
is
uh from his daughters we're so grateful
that we were
there with him during the last hours of
his life we spent
hours chatting to him reminiscing about
our childhood
and our wonderful mother and we shared
laughter
and tears together hannah
benji georgia all by his bedside and
lucy
on facetime say the family the last year
of our father's life
was nothing short of remarkable he was
rejuvenated and experienced things he'd
never
really dreamt of these are pictures of
him doing that incredible fundraising
effort
which just uh grew and grew didn't it
raising more than 30 million pounds in
the end more than 32 million pounds in
fact for the national health service he
walked
100 laps of his garden before his 100th
birthday this was all during the first
national lockdown back in april he
originally set out to raise
a thousand pounds for his charity
challenge
but those efforts really struck
such a chord with the whole country
and the praise and the donations flooded
in and
in the end he didn't raise a thousand
pounds he raised
32.7 million pounds
he got donations from one and a half
million supporters before his
fundraising page
was finally closed at midnight following
his 100th birthday
on april the 30th and he started that
challenge
a little over three weeks earlier he had
encouraged people to continue to donate
to the nhs charities together and
in acknowledgment to those extraordinary
efforts
uh you'll probably remember he was then
knighted by the queen
uh knighted by the queen during a unique
open-air ceremony
which was at windsor castle in the
summer of
last year now uh at the end of the year
he went to barbados with his family
for a well-deserved uh holiday but then
his
family confirmed his illness on sunday
they said he needed additional help
with his uh breathing and he was being
treated on a ward at bedford hospital
but not
in intensive care um and after
he was in bedford hospital there were of
course
well wishes from many people including
the prime minister uh
boris johnson amongst them who said my
thoughts are very much
with captain tom moore and this was the
moment that the queen knighted him so
memorably during that
unique open-air ceremony at windsor
castle in beautiful sunshine there you
may remember it
in the summer of last year and that's
when
captain tom became captain
sir tom