No one has shone brighter than Captain Tom Moore through the darkness of 2020 – and in this week’s Big Issue magazine he has a message of hope for Big Issue readers and vendors at a time when we need it most.
Captain Tom’s story is an inspirational one. The veteran set out on April 6 to walk 100 laps of his garden – at the ripe old age of 99 – to raise £250 to treat nurses at the local surgery to wine and chocolates.
We all know what happened next. Within four weeks he had raised £38.9m for the NHS and walked into the nation’s hearts and minds. By the time he turned 100 on April 30 he was a national treasure.
Now Captain Tom is capping off his remarkable year by becoming a Big Issue cover star. This week he gives The Big Issue his advice on how we can all keep going through the Covid-19 pandemic.
Captain Tom says: “You’ve got to be optimistic. You’ve got to believe that things will get better. They certainly will.
“Throughout the years of my life I’ve had bad times but I’ve always got through them. And I will say to everyone, whatever the problems are at the moment – and we have problems, nationally and worldwide – eventually we will all get through that and we will always be a little bit happier than we are today.