HE once vowed to give away at least £1billion to good causes – and businessman Sir Tom Hunter is staying true to his pledge.
Today, the kind-hearted billionaire has donated an incredible £100,000 to The Sun’s Who Cares Wins Appeal.
The 58-year-old reveals he was inspired to back our campaign to raise £1million to help the UK’s amazing health workers after receiving a text from his nephew, Martin Yates, a heart surgeon at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London.
Sir Tom said: “We were messaging each other the other night and I said I would buy him a Guinness when this was all over.
“He is a very humble guy. He never complains and doesn’t look for sympathy.
“He said he was looking forward to it and sent me a picture of himself in his scrubs before saying he had to go, as he was due to start his shift.
“That’s when it really hit home for me. These heroes are on the NHS front line risking their lives while I’m about to tuck into steak and chips and a nice glass of wine.
“That really got to me, to be honest with you.”
BRITAIN’s four million NHS staff are on the frontline in the battle against coronavirus.
But while they are helping save lives, who is there to help them?
The Sun has launched an appeal to raise £1MILLION for NHS workers.
The Who Cares Wins Appeal aims to get vital support to staff in their hour of need.
We have teamed up with NHS Charities Together in their urgent Covid-19 Appeal to ensure the money gets to exactly who needs it.
The Sun is donating £50,000 and we would like YOU to help us raise a million pounds, to help THEM.
No matter how little you can spare, please donate today here
The tycoon — who started his career selling trainers from the back of a van and went on to become Scotland’s first home-grown billionaire — decided to make a donation to our appeal after he heard his friend, the DJ Chris Evans, giving it his backing on his Virgin Radio show.
Sir Tom said: “The most important point is that the money goes directly to the front line to the people who need it most, and that it gets there quickly and effectively.
“The Sun’s Who Cares Wins appeal is doing exactly that.”
We have teamed up with NHS Charities Together in its Covid-19 appeal to make sure your money gets to health workers who need it.
Sir Tom’s generous donation will go towards providing food and care packs for NHS staff fighting to beat the pandemic — as well as somewhere for them to sit and rest.
Speaking on Chris’s radio show this week, Kat Mayer — who won Best Nurse in our 2018 Who Cares Wins awards — revealed that hospitals will use donations from our appeal to create “wobble rooms” where staff can let off steam.
As she described to Chris the phenomenal pressure she and her colleagues are under because of the coronavirus crisis, Kat, a ward sister at Lincoln County Hospital, struggled to hold back tears.
Sir Tom, who raised £2.5million through matching donations to Chris Evans’ Children In Need auction in 2014, said: “We are facing a national crisis and what Chris is very good at doing is bringing it down to one person.
“Our NHS workers are heroes but they are also human. I think we all knew the NHS was great but we now have a new appreciation for it, and the 1.4million people who work for it.”
Sir Tom grew up in the small mining town of New Cumnock, in East Ayrshire, where his dad ran a greengrocery store.
With a £5,000 loan from his father, he launched a business selling trainers to shops in 1984.
Sir Tom said: “I felt like the luckiest guy in the world because it just took off.”
Sports Division became one of the biggest sports retailers, and in 1998 he sold it to rival company JJB Sports for an estimated £295million, earning him a place on The Sunday Times Rich List.
Soon afterwards he set up The Hunter Foundation with his wife Marion, 53.
To date, the couple, who have three children, have given away more than £70million to good causes through the foundation.
This includes donating £3million last year to Children In Need’s Rickshaw Challenge, which saw a team of six young people and The One Show’s Matt Baker ride a rickshaw 400 miles across the UK.
The foundation also supports the annual Kiltwalking event, which last year helped just over 1,300 charities in Scotland.
The Hunter Foundation normally matches 50 per cent of the total donations received, but after the Glasgow Kiltwalk had to be postponed due to the lockdown this year, Sir Tom pledged to double the £700,000 raised by the public.
He said: “We raised £1.4million in total in just 24 hours. It’s a lifeline for these charities.”
Sir Tom, who was knighted in 2005 for services to entrepreneurship and philanthropy, has signed The Giving Pledge, launched by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and billionaire businessman Warren Buffett in 2010, along with 170 of the world’s richest people.
And he hopes his £100,000 donation to the Who Cares Wins appeal would inspire his famous friends to follow suit.
But Sir Tom stresses all donations, big or small, will help.
He said: “I’d say to everyone, we know who the heroes are, so if you can, show them your support.”
Don't miss the latest news and figures - and essential advice for you and your family.
To receive The Sun’s Coronavirus newsletter in your inbox every tea time, sign up here.
To follow us on Facebook, simply ‘Like’ our Coronavirus page.
Get Britain’s best-selling newspaper delivered to your smartphone or tablet each day – find out more.
