The story of Colonel Tom Moore

needs to be written up as a picture book for young children. It needs to be written to help them understand that giving time and effort is every bit as important as giving money. 
Yes the then Captain Moore set out to raise a little money - and ended up raising far more than he set out to raise. For me that is not the most important part of his story. 
For me the  important part of his story is that a man who is now one hundred years old, an age most of us don't even believe we will reach, set out to do something for other people. He set out to do something which, for him, was clearly a physical effort. It was every bit as important an achievement as those physically fit individuals who set out to run marathons or bike from Lands End to John o' Groats or across the Nullabor Plains in Downunder.
   "I can't see why everyone is making such a fuss about him," someone told me yesterday. She had phoned to ask if I would do something for her  - not for the first time. I am waiting for her to do something not so much for me as for someone else. She has a very reasonable and very reliable income. Her idea of doing something for other people is to simply hand over a donation. The idea that she might stand behind a stall or make a cake or drop a prescription in to the chemist for her neighbour is foreign to her - and yes, she would have the time and capacity to do these things. Her own craft work is beautiful. She is generous in her own way. It is just that she doesn't think of things that way.
Many of us simply need to do things for other people. We don't have the disposable income which allows us to donate money. I have also been brought up to know that one should and must help others. My paternal great-grandmother instilled that into her children. My paternal grandfather instilled it into his. The Senior Cat instilled it into me and my siblings. My siblings have instilled it into their children. The same is true across almost everyone in our extended clan - perhaps because our great-grandmother saw it as so important. 
It was partly because of my great-grandmother, a woman I never met, I set out on a journey of my own years ago. It changed the course of my life. It meant I didn't pursue the sort of career I planned. There were many times when I resented it and said "I don't want to do this." When a newspaper editor told me, "That is why you should be the one to do it" I could almost hear my great-grandmother saying the words. You don't always get to choose.
I don't know what children the good Captain has but I am sure he has not allowed them to sit around as idle couch potatoes. He has undoubtedly told them they didn't always have a choice. Sometimes you simply have to get out there and do it.
He also makes me wonder what the rest of us can do.