How Social Media has helped approach the subject of Captain Tom Moore's journey

CAPTAIN TOM RAISES MILLIONS FOR THE NHS!

Britney Pease. Future of Journalism (Digital Journalism)

Never thought you would see the day where a human would do something worthwhile, think again!

On Monday 6th April 2020, Tom's daughter, Hannah Ingram-Moore thought of an idea for Tom to give something back to the NHS for the courageous things that they were doing. This prompted a spark in him to do something worthwhile, therefore, he started doing daily walks turning into laps around his garden with a goal to complete it before his 100th birthday. Within a few days, word got around that he would fundraise for the National Heroes that saved his life and so started "Captain Tom Moore's 100th Birthday walk for the NHS". (Moore, T, Tomorrow will be a good day, p.355).

Social media gives people so many platforms to showcase the most important topics that needs awareness. Captain Tom Moore has done just that! It all started back in April when he decided to walk more after needing more exercise. This led to others getting interested in his walking and, therefore wanted to raise a profile on social media and broadcasts by fundraising for the NHS that give their lives endlessly to help others. It started with a few £100 here and there, then within a few days, it went up by hundreds of pounds, this is when he knew this way of raising awareness would work and went on to do several interviews.

Appearances on Good Morning Britain, ITV news were rolling in and so was the money, it seems every interview he appeared in, more money kept rolling in. The more, the better!

When asked about the fundraising experience, raising millions of pounds, Captain Tom Moore said "Never in my wildest imagination did I think it would be possible". He raised a grand total of £38.9 million when the appeal closed for the NHS charities.

Captain Tom Moore has audiences of both genders, with ages of 5 to 30's, making him likeable to everyone. I spoke to Hannah Ingram-Moore who said "I knew that when he started doing the walks that I realised he was committed to the idea of fundraising, and so I started setting up press releases and fundraising pages, and since then, he had become committed to the idea of giving back."

Hannah Ingram-Moore, daughter of Captain Tom Moore filmed all of his walks on her iPhone to help with raising money for the NHS after what looked like an awful year for the whole family, with a skin cancer diagnosis and a bad hip injury which led to the family, especially Captain Tom Moore wanting to do more for those who lost their lives, as well as supporting the National Health Services that saved his life, and would always be indebt with them, so he had to do something worthwhile to give back, and therefore, 10 laps around his garden with a goal in mind to reach it before his 100th Birthday seems just the trick!

How often do you see an elderly man of 100 years of age do and raise money for a cause and subject so close to his heart and successfully achieved it in a record number of weeks, not often! Captain Tom reacted to the enormous outpouring of love from the British Public by saying "I may be walking in my garden to raise money, but this is the British Public's contribution. You are all wonderful and what make Great Britain great! Thanks to everyone. We stand united even during the most testing of times."

The JustGiving page for the fundraising collection was just the beginning for Captain Tom, and so crept out a Pandora's box as it were, for no one could believe what would come next. The Great British Public donating money right, left and centre was just the push he needed for it for it to be a success, and overnight he became viral. "Viral", he said. He has never heard of such an expression.

Captain Tom Moore loves dishing out advice for those out there struggling, this is what he said " Tomorrow will be a good day, Tomorrow you will maybe find everything will be better than today, even if today was all right. My today was all right and my tomorrow will certainly be better. That's the way I've always looked at life." It created a hashtag that stuck and became popular within the Captain Tom community with social media platforms creating #Tomorrowwillbeagoodday.

Captain Tom Moore never thought in a million years that any of this would happen, and yet he made it into a massive successful, joyful and intuitive campaign with the help of his two family members, Daughter, Hannah Ingram-Moore and Son, Colin Ingram, raising millions of pounds for the National Health Services. He basically became an overnight sensation, as it were. He initially went into walking laps of his garden, in the hopes of raising £1,000 for the cause, instead raised a massive grand total of £38.9 million pounds, you'd never believe it coming from an elderly man, but there you are.

He started raising money for the National Health Services to help the 'lockdown blues', as he calls in after what had been a terrible year and still is, but Captain Tom is there to lift our spirits up and get us all donating to the 'National Heroes' that save our lives during these times.

Social media and broadcast coverage for Captain Tom broke all records when freelance writer, Daisy Craydon spoke out about her involvement in the Captain Tom Moore fundraising campaign, and how she helped raise the profile for him and his family. She conducted an interview where she spoke about her involvement and how she made sure that the British Public donated to ensure he got all the recognition he thoroughly deserved.

She became a big part of the family, speaking about how she became a PR freelance writer for Captain Tom and his family, alongside being able to express the joy of working alongside them to help them fundraise and see they magical journey that they are setting themselves on.

I spoke with Stephanie Smith, an editor at The Yorkshire Post who said, "Captain Sir Tom was born in Keighley, so as a Yorkshireman, we follow all his achievements with a keen interest, as do our readers. He is a remarkable man who had a simple idea to raise money for charity to help during the pandemic. What he has achieved since he began is wonderful and inspiring for us all."

Hannah Ingram-Moore, the daughter of Captain Tom Moore, whom I spoke to, about if social media and broadcast platforms have helped raise a profile for Captain Tom, and this is her response below.

"Yes absolutely. All we did was send a press release to our local paper to celebrate the fact that my father would be turning 100, which I was planning to do pre-lockdown anyway, and to raise awareness that he was walking to raise money for the NHS. Our aim was to try and reach £1,000, with the help of anyone that able to donate, and so it was beyond our wildest dreams that so many millions of pounds were raised from so many countries."

"Social media and broadcast allowed the campaign to naturally gain momentum and through the good wishes and encouragement of everyone imaginable from the World Health organisation, to TV personalities, the message of hope and uniting across the globe became stronger. It has been described as a 'global' lightning 'strike' for the speed in which it gained momentum."

"We now have the Captain Tom Foundation, a legacy to my father, that we created several weeks ago. Our aim is to raise lots more money, through the foundation for charities including Mind, The Royal British Legion, Willen Hospice, and Helen and Douglas House. We are ready to play our part, along with everyone else, for this next lockdown so that we can give hope where it's needed most."

Many have supported Captain Tom since the very beginning, much like Tom Richmond, an editor and writer for the Yorkshire Post who wrote an article about how he restored British Values and gave hope to the British Public after a difficult times living in a pandemic. The full article can be read below https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/opinion/columnists/how-captain-tom-moore-restored-british-values-tom-richmond-2543882.

When asked for a quote about Captain Tom Moore and his fundraising, this is what he told me. "He has given hope to so many when they were consumed by despair earlier this year. One of the greatest ever Yorkshire men who is a shining example to all."

Many of the general public have found a glimmer of light and hope through Captain Tom Moore and have found supporting him and donating money during these difficult times that we live in as a 'support system'. The video below shows just how Captain Tom has inspired others during the pandemic to do more, from people with disabilities to young children inspired by all he stands for in life.

NHS charities together ended up being the charity that Captain Tom Moore ended up giving his donation money too, and they were very appreciative of it.

When asked about the donation money from Captain Tom's fundraising campaign, the response back was this.

"When Captain Sir Tom Moore raised money through his 100 laps, this was donated to our charity. NHS Charities Together is a member organisation for around 240 NHS charities work on providing the added extras for staff, patients and volunteers - they fund what core NHS funding cannot offer. The money raised by Captain Tom, along with the support of all our other amazing fundraisers and donors, went to our covid-19 appeal."

"The money from this appeal has been distributed in the form of grants. In the first round of grants, we distributed £30 million in emergency grants. We now have grants rounds open with £30 million allocated for community and social care partnership grants, and £35 million allocated for recovery grants. We have also allocated a further £12 million to support NHS charities in the current second wave"

"We have been incredibly grateful for the support of our wonderful fundraisers. Captain Tom played a very important role in this, inspiring so many other people to come up with fundraising challenges of their own, and we have really been blown away by how creative, supportive, and generous people have been!"

Captain Tom Moore has been really generous and has given NHS charities together a 'face lift', so to speak. Because of Captain Tom, they have been able to help patients and support staff, alongside with grants and the second lockdown, and therefore, this donation has really helped them a lot.

During the pandemic, many have been a bit down and don't know what to do with our time. This all changed when Captain Tom revealed something exciting to the nation. He was to duet with a special guest.

His next step to help alongside fundraising was the most unexpected, but a song. Alongside Michael Ball, he sang 'You'll never walk alone' to raise money for the NHS, and it became so popular that it became the most fastest selling single of all, exceeding 82,000 copies sold with all profits going to NHS Together Charities, which they were very grateful for.

It's clear the general public resonate with the lyrics, with the words 'you'll never walk alone' being the main focal point during the pandemic that the public can rely on to help through these difficult times.

Members of the public have hailed him a 'legend', with one saying "Proceeds go to the NHS charities together, so staff and patients in hospitals and in social care will have help during this awful covid crisis. I'm amazed at the total of money this amazing man has raised."

Check out the whole song via this link: https://open.spotify.com/album/3nW13YPOoRLLFcsThZA1Jh?highlight=spotify:track:5pdawBUyhdNkWhSoaDZivf

A video was made with NHS staff joining in with captain Tom and Michael Ball to capture that authentic situation. The video below shows the realness of what captain tom and the others are doing to raise donations for NHS Together Charities.

Captain Tom Moore, even though he was only part of it for a bit, lapped up the attention alongside Michael Ball and all the NHS staff that are working to save coronavirus patients every day and get support for those who need it. He became the oldest person ever to capture a number one single in the charts, alongside an established singer. This even surprised his family!

Sir Captain Tom's achievements meant a knighthood from the Queen, no less on her first engagement since lockdown. He must be special!

He achieved the knighthood for walking around his garden while doing 100 laps to raise money for the NHS. In a socially distanced event, the Queen did her usual pat of the sword and thanked Captain Tom for his achievements saying, "Thank you so much, an amazing amount of money you raised".

The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, specifically requested that Sir Captain Tom Moore got nominated for a knighthood, praising his efforts in achieving the extraordinary amount of money he raised.

He said joked that "If I kneel down, I'll never get up again", which is the standard protocol for receiving a knighthood, but understandably given his age, that should not happen. The knighthood ceremony took place at Windsor Castle in the outdoors, where Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip had been self-isolating since the beginning of lockdown, given their ages, to which prompted the Queen to ask the same question to Captain Tom, "Have you been shut up - been isolating?".

He was overwhelmed with the attention that he got from everybody around him and the Queen that he thought he must have been dreaming. Congratulations from Prime Minster, Boris Johnson and Health Secretary, Matt Hancock were said to Captain Tom with Hancock saying, " "Congratulations to ⁦Captain Tom Moore⁩ on receiving your Knighthood. "Your efforts throughout coronavirus raised the spirit of our nation and we are so grateful for all your fantastic work."