Captain Tom shows us the path forward

The Second World War veteran died yesterday aged 100, after contracting the disease he did so much to combat.

The simple task he set himself of raising £1,000 walking an 82ft loop around his garden 100 times before his 100th birthday caught a nation’s imagination and helped amass a staggering £39m. for NHS charities.

It was a story of such determination and character that reports of his death – just one of two million now linked to Covid-19 – quickly made the news on websites from the Washington Post to the Hindustan Times.

Devastating though the pandemic has been as it shatters lives and ruins economies, there have been shafts of light offering inspiration and a belief that better times lie ahead.

The retired Army officer, who served in India and Burma (Myanmar) in the war was inspired to start his fundraising bid after the NHS nursed him back to health in 2018 following a broken hip and skin cancer. He quickly became a beacon of hope for tens of millions.

The modest nature of the man and his dignified response to becoming both a knight and a national hero in his tenth decade show the cumulative worth of small acts of kindness and care for others that have been the best parts of the world’s response to the pandemic.

Whether it is those who have sought to raise money by doing madcap challenges for hard-pressed charities while trapped in their homes or others seeking to add some entertainment with a joke or a song or a fitness class matters little.

It is the act of trying to help and the consideration of the needs of others above ourselves that counts.

With the Bailiwick back in lockdown and Covid lurking on our doorstep it is once again time for islanders to show the best of their natures.

There is no better place to look for inspiration than ‘Captain Tom’, with his refusal to despair or look for someone else to take responsibility.