Is generosity to Captain Tom and other elderly fundraisers admiration or guilt?

He has, it can hardly have escaped notice, become a national hero and a role model for others. The local Post Master has spoken of being overwhelmed at the sight. Staff have been diverted to open the cards and, with thousands more expected, sorting machines have been reprogrammed to separate Captain Tom's mail into a dedicated collection box.

Tom is the national hero but there are local heroes springing up in his wake.

In Wales, Rhythwyn Evans pledged to complete 91 laps, matching his 91 years, of the exterior of his bungalow, inspired by Captain Tom, to raise funds for local health charities.

He made the news, this nonagenarian farmer with his walking stick and his determination to "give something back to the community". Presumably Mr Evans has already given plenty to the community and this is all the cherry on his community spirited cake.

From a modest target of £1000, at last glance he had raised nearly £40,000 for Hywel Dda Health Charities.

Margaret Payne, of Sutherland, similarly inspired, aims to trek up and down her stairs until she has accrued the equivalent of 2,398ft, the same as the nearby Suilven mountain. Now aged 90, she says she first climbed Suilven with her sister Elizabeth when she was 15.

That teenage spirit clearly lives on in her. Mrs Payne aimed to raise £10,000 both for the NHS and the Highland hospice that cared for her late husband but last night her total was sitting just shy of £300,000. I thought I had misread that but I had not.

Last night Captain Tom's fundraiser, which sees him performing laps of his garden, was at more than £28 million from a target of £1000. He has been praised for uniting the country at this terrible time and reminding Britain of its bulldog spirit.

There's a dual take on this. On one hand, it's a marvellous feat of energy and determination, watching Captain Tom push his walking frame around and around the garden. Up and down, back and forth, stoic, relentless. A hero. The young man of his heart must remember his active days, his hours usefully laid out in service to his country.

A man like that could not be expected to happily sit still while a crisis again enveloped the nation.

On the other hand, why is there near-universal delight at watching a man in kissing distance of his 100th birthday labour in aid of supporting a health service that should be well able, thanks to competent government action, to cope with the pressures of a pandemic without the elderly, the generation that has already given its years to productivity, slaving to fundraise for it.

It manages to be admirable and tragic in one dizzying breath.

There's a particularly poignancy to it, given that the National Health Service came as a part of the recuperation efforts of a war that Tom Moore helped fight. Doubtless, having witnessed the birth of the NHS, he could never have imagine he would be compelled, 70 years on, to fundraise to plug its deficiencies.

You can absolutely empathise with the need to take some control over a situation. For the past year the headlines have focused on how lonely and isolated our elderly are. A crisis, it has been labelled by some. An epidemic by others.

From an epidemic to a pandemic, and now relentless headlines about the particular vulnerability of the elderly to Covid-19. The news stories of care homes suffering multiple deaths caused by the virus are heart-rending enough from the perspective of the young and healthy but being in that age group and reading of the frailty of your peers must cut particularly deep.

These stories tend to be framed in an entirely passive way. What can people do to support those who are isolated, rather than suggesting what those who are isolated might do. Care homes are crying out for PPE and increased testing of residents and staff; there have been multiple calls from care home owners. But this situation speaks to how vulnerable the elderly are and how hard others around them are working to keep them safe, even at great personal cost.

To have been young, and vital, and now to hear your generation spoken of as a burden to be taken care of, of course you would be compelled to act, if you could.

Yet at the start of the pandemic there was talk of a concern that elderly people would simply perish from lack of support with grocery shopping, fetching medicines and simply having some company. A survey from Age UK last year found that more than one million elderly people in England said they can go for more than a month without speaking to a friend, family member or neighbour.

It has taken a pandemic for people to really empathise with our elder population in a way no charity campaign has achieved.

Along with tens of thousands of birthday cards, Captain Tom has similarly been swamped with offers of gifts, which he has asked that people donate to local care homes.

Millions of pounds, cards and gifts, a charity single, Captain Tom paintings sold for the NHS: it's easy to understand why he has become an icon and why now. He quite perfectly taps into an idealistic British sensibility of decency, hard work, service to country and achieving great things at a great age, which we admire as old age is frightening and we like to see people best it.

Might those who are sending Captain Tom gifts look a little closer to home? There is a vast elderly population and a great many need support more than he does. He is clearly a wonderful fellow, but there are many wonderful old men and women who could benefit from support in local communities.

If we are to come together as a society during the coronavirus crisis and if Captain Tom is to be our national inspiration then might his legacy be that people, rather than gift to him, check on their elderly neighbours. Post a card to someone in their street. See what local charities and care homes need.

You can be certain Captain Tom, a good man, would want all this kindness dispersed to where it can be better used.

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