War veteran Captain Tom Moore, who has raised £28 million for the NHS by walking lengths of his garden, has been sent tens of thousands of cards ahead of his 100th birthday.
The 99-year-old Second World War veteran received worldwide attention after raising millions of pounds to help the NHS fight coronavirus by completing 100 laps of his garden in Bedfordshire, before his birthday on April 30.
Capturing the hearts of the nation, members of the public have been sending tens of thousands of birthday cards to Captain Tom.
Inundated by post, the Royal Mail South Midlands Mail Centre in Northampton said it has dealt with 25,000 cards so far, and has now set up separate boxes on their letter sorting machines to handle all the post for Captain Tom.
Bedford School, attended by Captain Tom's grandson, is accepting the delivery of the cards and providing its Great Hall as a sorting office for staff to open each card.
A post from the school on Facebook said: "Our Great Hall has seen many gatherings over the years, but yesterday it made a little piece of school history when it transformed into Captain Tom's Sorting Office where a team of socially-distancing staff began the mammoth task of opening the tens of thousands of 100th birthday cards sent to Captain Tom.
"Today another mountain of cards has arrived to further adorn our hall in the lead up to the Captain's birthday on April 30."
The Royal Mail centre expects the number of cards to rise ahead of Captain Tom's big day.
Staff have re-programmed sorting machines to re-route his mail into a dedicated collection box and he even has his own trolleys for his post, the BBC reports.
Gareth Eales, area representative for the Communications Workers Union, said hundreds of thousands of cards are expected in the run up to Captain Tom's birthday.
He said Captain Tom "has been an inspiration to us all".
"This is a time for heroes, which Captain Tom and all key workers certainly are," he told the BBC.
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The Royal Mail has even issued a special postmark to mark the veteran's birthday and it will start appearing on stamped mail across the UK next week.
Bill Chandi, who is in charge of the local post office, told the Bedford Independent: "In all my years as a postmaster, I’ve never seen anything like this.
"We’re ecstatic for Tom. Whenever he used to pop into our shop he’d always say to me that post offices are at the centre of the community.
"I spoke to him on Saturday and told him that’s certainly true now."
Captain Tom has raised more than £28million for the NHS on his JustGiving page, from 1.3 million separate donations.
