100

Few people can be unaware of the late Sir Captain Tom Moore, an ordinary sort of a person who aged ninety-nine and recuperating from a stay in hospital during the pandemic last year, decided to try to walk one hundred lengths of his garden, hoping to raise a small amount through sponsorship for charity. Not only did he achieve his challenge, he became an inspiration for the whole country and for many other people further afield. He raised an astonishing £30 plus millions, but through encouraging others to follow his example, even in small ways, countless millions more were raised for good causes. The well-worn phrase cometh the hour, cometh the man, can rarely have been more aptly applied to this modest man. The events of last year and their continuation, has impacted on us all, but so has the spirit of Sir Captain Tom – especially it seems, among young people.

Yesterday, April 30th, would have been his one hundred and first birthday, and in recognition of that, a new challenge has been announced that ordinary folk should try to complete a hundred somethings to raise more funds for his foundation, The Captain Tom Foundation:

Everyone is invited to take on a challenge around the number 100 anytime and anywhere over Captain Tom’s birthday weekend. It’s so simple.
* Think up your 100 challenge. It can be anything you like – from walking 100 metres to baking 100 cakes or writing 100 letters
* Take on your 100 any time between Friday 30 April and Monday 3 May
* Fundraise or donate to The Captain Tom Foundation – you can download our fundraising pack here
* Share your 100 on social media using #CaptainTom100

That’s such a simple and yet brilliant idea, and my immediate thought was that I wanted to do my part too, but my second thought was that I had no idea what to do. What would be feasible for me? There’s no point in starting something which from the outset would be if not exactly doomed to failure then unlikely to succeed. It would also have to be something which actually had an element of challenge to it, the suggestion of walking, cake baking or letter writing gave examples, but the walking didn’t appeal (and there would have to be something to raise some enthusiasm at the same time as being challenging) I could bake a hundred cakes but what would I do with them – I haven’t that number of friends, or connections to anywhere which could use them, and writing letters – to whom? – and also with what purpose because for me an activity would have to have an actual purpose to make it a real challenge.

I’ve been puzzling over this for the last couple for days since I first read about it, and thinking of the walking/baking/letter writing, I fixed on the last example. Forget the letter writing, but blog writing? That wouldn’t be much of a challenge though as I write a blog every day… but to write a blog of exactly 100 words, each day for 100 days, now that would be a challenge! I’ve thought some more about it and yes, I think this could be my 100 challenge thing. At the end I would donate – I’m not in a situation where I could find any sort of sponsorship, but when it’s done and I have my 10,000 words I could publish it and any money I raise from that could be donated! So yes, I have my challenge, and to set it off with a real challenge, I will do my #1/100 today… gulp, gosh…

https://captaintom.org/