SHOUT-OUT

The big lockdown has brought out the best of Yorkshire heart and spirit in community and business…

WE SALUTE YOU, TOM! If you’re ever looking for a true display of Yorkshire grit, you’ll find it in Captain Tom Moore. The 99-year-old army veteran, at time of going to press, was flying towards the £8million mark in his epic effort to raise money for NHS Charities Together. Now living in Bedfordshire, he was born and brought up in Keighley and attended Keighley Grammar School. The former civil engineer apprentice, who was then enlisted in the Second World War, has been completing laps of his garden with the aim of doing 100 laps before his 100th birthday. His campaign has been so successful he now aims to carry on once he reaches his target. The charity champ, who served in India and fought on the Arakan, went to Sumatra after the Japanese surrender, had originally set a £1,000 target. But donations poured in from across the globe in support of him and he has now raised millions.

‘I am humbled by the generosity of the British public and want to say thank you to everyone who has donated to the NHS Charities Together, in support of my 100 laps,’ says Tom. ‘Our NHS are incredible, and anything we can do to support and help them right now is what I intend to do before my 100th birthday.’

In York the Supper Collective galvanises the efforts of restaurants, cafes, chefs and food producers to provide 100 meals a day for the isolated and vulnerable in their homes as well as for key NHS workers. Based in the city’s ‘Bishy Road’ area, Supper Collective sees restaurants supply meals on different days for distribution. Examples of their efforts also include treats such as mini cheese boards from Pairings wine bar delivered to the staff at York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust