A World War Two veteran in the UK is aiming to complete 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday to raise money for frontline health staff.
A Givealittle page set up for Captain Tom Moore says his initial target was to raise £1000 ($2095) for the National Health Service (NHS) by his birthday on April 30. But an influx of donations smashed that goal within 24 hours. Now, a total of £11.8 million ($24.7 million) from over 600,000 people has been raised so far.
"When we started off with this exercise we didn't anticipate we'd get anything near that sort of money. It's really amazing," he told the BBC.
"All of them, from top to bottom, in the National Health Service, they deserve everything that we can possibly put in their place. They're all so brave."
He has nearly completed all the laps of his 25 metre-long garden at his home in Bedfordshire. On Thursday morning (local time) he will complete his 100th lap live on television.
Moore says he initially wanted to raise funds to thank the NHS staff who helped him during his cancer treatment and when he had a broken hip. Now he hopes the money can be used more widely.
"We're a little bit like having a war at the moment. But the doctors and nurses, they're all on the frontline. And all of us behind, we've got to supply them and keep them going with everything that they need so they can do their job even better than they're doing now."
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock paid a "special tribute" to Moore during a press conference.
"Captain Tom, you're an inspiration to us all and we thank you," he said on Wednesday (local time).
