He was only trying to do his bit, but instead Captain Tom became a national hero.
The WWII veteral set out to walk around his garden 100 times to raise £1,000 for charity and achieved his aim 30,000 times over.
"I think it's an absolutely fantastic sum of money, you would never imagine sort of money,” he said.
“It's unbelievable that people would be so kind to give that sort of money to the National Health Service. And maybe I was responsible for starting it, but not deliberately.
As his daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore puts it, "the nation has taken [his story] to their hearts”.
Captain Tom has broken two world records, including his duet with Michael Ball which went straight to number one in the charts, and he now has a Royal Mail birthday postmark to his name.
Get the latest headlines: [ Ссылка ]
Telegraph.co.uk and YouTube.com/TelegraphTV are websites of The Telegraph, the UK's best-selling quality daily newspaper providing news and analysis on UK and world events, business, sport, lifestyle and culture.
