CAPTAIN Sir Tom Moore wanted to come home to steak and chips after he was admitted to hospital with coronavirus, his daughter has revealed.
The Keighley-born 100-year-old died on February 2 - three days after testing positive for Covid-19 and being admitted to Bedford Hospital.
Hannah Ingram-Moore has spoken about her father's days in hospital, their final family holiday to the Caribbean and how his heart would have been "broken" if he had known about trolling the family received.
She told BBC Breakfast: "I said to him in the last few days, 'so, what do you want to eat when you come home?, and we decided it was steak and chips.
"He was really excited about coming out for steak and chips and getting his frame back outside and his walker.
"The last real conversation was positive and about carrying on, and that's a lovely place to be."
Ms Ingram-Moore said that when the Second World War veteran went into hospital the family "really all believed he'd come back out".
"We thought the oxygen would help, that he would be robust enough, (but) the truth is he just wasn't. He was old and he just couldn't fight it," she added.
Sir Tom captured the hearts of the nation with his fundraising efforts during the first lockdown when he walked 100 laps of his Bedfordshire garden before his 100th birthday, raising more than £32 million for the NHS.
Before he died the centenarian got to tick a holiday in the Caribbean off his bucket list when the family travelled to Barbados just before Christmas.
"It was just amazing," Ms Ingram-Moore said.
"He sat in 29 degrees outside, he read two novels, he read the newspapers every day, and we sat and we talked as a family, we went to restaurants (because we could there) and he ate fish on the beach and what a wonderful thing to do.
"I think we were all so pleased we managed to give him that."
She also discussed the trolling the family received following Sir Tom's fundraising efforts and said: "I couldn't tell him.
"I think it would have broken his heart, honestly, if we'd said to him people are hating us.
"Because how do you rationalise to a 100-year-old man that something so incredibly good can attract such horror, so we contained it within the four of us and we said we wouldn't play to... that vile minority, we wouldn't play to them, we're not, because we are talking to the massive majority of people who we connect with."
The full interview will air on BBC Breakfast on Wednesday, February 17.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel