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Meet the seniors raising millions to combat coronavirus — first Captain Tom, raised $39 million walking and now Sergeant Zina has raised $26,000, and is knitting

Captain Tom has celebrated his 100th birthday and raised £32 million since the coronavirus outbreak, now others are following his lead Read More...

Capt. Tom Moore was awarded three military medals for his service, which saw him stationed from Mumbai to Myanmar. And now, after turning 100, he has been made an honorary colonel and celebrated with a flyover by the U.K.’s Royal Air Force.

Inspired by his efforts, fellow fundraisers have popped up, contributing to the fight against coronavirus in their own ways.

At 101, Joan Rich will take on a Capt. Tom–esque campaign in which she aims to walk 102 laps of her local park in the countryside county of Suffolk. She has raised over £12,000 ($15,000) for the U.K.’s health service so far.

In London 100-year-old Dabirul Islam Choudhury is walking laps of his shared garden while fasting for Ramadan. He has raised almost £80,000 for a Ramadan Family Commitment fund to help victims of the coronavirus in the U.K., Bangladesh and more than 50 other countries.

Meanwhile Sgt. Zina, a 97-year-old Russian, sent a video message to fellow World War II veteran Capt. Tom. “In 1945, we overcame fascism together, and now we are fighting the virus together,” she said.

Zina Korneva promised to knit Moore a pair of socks and announced she is fundraising for Russian doctors infected with the virus. She cannot walk because of a bad hip, but she will tell war stories via Instagram instead. Korneva is reported to have raise one million Rubles ($13,000).

The fundraisers come after Moore himself flew past his initial goal, a modest £1,000.

A top British Army official, Chief of the General Staff Sir Mark Carleton-Smith, gave Moore a promotion, approved by the queen, and Moore released a single, passing pop sensation The Weeknd, 69 years Moore’s junior, to become the oldest person ever to top the official U.K. charts.

A Spitfire and a Hurricane, British fighter aircraft used in World War II, flew over Moore’s house to commemorate the veteran’s 100th birthday.

Moore received more than 100,000 birthday cards, including from famous footballers and members of the royal family. The cards poured in thanks to the viral #makeacardfortom Twitter campaign. England’s football captain, Harry Kane, and the duke and duchess of Cambridge were among the card senders.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson wished Moore a happy birthday via a video on Twitter TWTR, -0.86%. “I know I speak for the whole country when I say, we wish you a very happy 100th birthday,” he said.

The veteran had released his debut single after raising over £32 million ($39 million) for the National Health Service’s fight against the coronavirus.

“When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high and don’t be afraid of the dark,” Moore says on the track, which is a remix of theater star Michael Ball’s classic “You’ll Never Walk Alone” featuring Capt. Tom’s narration.

The song made its debut on the iTunes AAPL, +1.25% chart at No. 1, ousting 103-year-old Dame Vera Lynn, also raising money for the U.K.’s health service. Lynn, with Katherine Jenkins, released a duet cover of her 1939 hit “We’ll Meet Again,” recently referenced by Queen Elizabeth II in her national address on the coronavirus crisis.

Moore eclipsed the crowdfunding platform Just Giving’s record for cash raised by a single campaign by managing 100 laps around his garden with the help of a walking frame. All profits from his single, produced by Universal Music Group–owned Decca Records, will fund the campaign, too.

A petition to knight the veteran has also notched almost 1 million signatures and the prime minister, himself having recovered from a serious bout with the coronavirus-borne disease COVID-19, is set to look at ways to reward this latest act of kindness to have emerged in response to the continuing global pandemic.

Read:‘I don’t need the money, but I do need my friends and family’: Meet the California quilt maker who’s sewing dozens of face masks

“Captain Tom has captured the heart of the nation with his heroic effort and raised an incredible amount of money for hardworking NHS staff. … The PM will be looking at ways to recognize Tom and his efforts,” said the prime minister’s spokesperson.

Moore’s final laps in his garden were broadcast live on national television with the backdrop of a guard of honor organized by his former regiment, who saluted him over the line.

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U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. Woody Johnson encouraged Moore via Twitter, urging people to support the campaign. He said it is “amazing what people can do” and celebrated the generosity of the donors.

Moore said he would keep on walking as donations continued.

“We set out initially to raise a little bit of money by me walking up and down 100 times in reference to my hundredth birthday,” he said in an interview with Sky News. “The thing is, with this invisible enemy that we’ve got, we’ve all got to look forward to the future. … Whatever people think, we shall get better.”

Moore lives in Bedfordshire with his daughter and two grandchildren.

Moore’s campaign crashed the fundraising platform, and JustGiving’s parent company, Blackbaud, made its largest-ever donation, £100,000, to the campaign.

Celebrities from Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton to England cricket hero Ben Stokes have praised Britain’s coronavirus hero, who told ITV News: “In the last war we had our soldiers in uniform, in navy the army and the air force, fighting, but this time our army are in doctors’ and nurses’ uniforms, and they’ve doing such a marvelous job regardless of their own benefit.”

Elsewhere, Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas raised almost £400,000 for the NHS, and Virgin Money’s viral Run For Heroes campaign has raised almost £5 million.

Other heartwarming acts of kindness have included the thousands of citizen-led groups that have sprung up across Britain as neighbors club together to offer support to people in need during the coronavirus pandemic.

Some of London’s top hotels, meanwhile, have provided shelter for the homeless, as Michelin-starred restaurants have dished up gourmet meals for health workers.

Read:Top hotels for the homeless and gourmet meals for health workers — U.K. businesses step up as coronavirus crisis deepens

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