Singing jeweller's Captain Tom 100 challenge raises funds for Springhill Hospice

Rochdale’s singing jeweller John Swinden has raised just short of £2,000 for Springhill Hospice with his Captain Tom 100 songs challenge.

John sang 102 songs in a row on Sunday 2 May, which took him five hours and 40 minutes, performing hit tracks by the likes of Elvis, Dean Martin, Johnny Cash, Bobby Vee and the Everly Brothers.

The Captain Tom 100 challenge was set up by the late veteran’s family in his honour: dream up a Captain Tom 100 challenge based around the number 100 and do it at any time and anywhere over Captain Tom’s birthday weekend – starting on Friday 30 April through to Bank Holiday Monday 3 May.

John live-streamed the challenge via Facebook, taking a five minute break at 30 songs, 50 songs and then 75 songs. The initial 100 track set was closed with John singing the Frank Sinatra classic, 'My Way' before performing two songs without music by request.

 

 

He said: “I’m very lucky I don’t get a sore throat, but I treated the performance as if I was in front of an audience, not in my living room. I’ll always do it to the best of my ability. I felt the pressure for the last 27 songs and my shoulders started hurting, but Captain Tom kept walking so it was the least I could do in his memory.

“I was so emotional by the end that I did start crying after seeing everyone reacting to the stream [Facebook allows viewers to ‘react’ to live videos with emojis like hearts].

“I’m happy to have raised the amount I did; I think under different circumstances without Covid I would have raised £5,000. It’s just a drop in the ocean of what the hospice needs to stay open but I just wanted to help. Sometimes you don’t achieve what you want to, but you keep pushing and achieve things in a different way.”

Earlier this year, John donated £1,000 to the hospice after the sale of limited edition prints of an original painting of Captain Tom, created by Middleton artist Lisa Haselden.

 

 

After being inspired by Captain Tom’s efforts to raise funds for NHS Charities by walking 100 laps of his garden for his 100th birthday, John purchased the artwork of Captain Sir Tom seated with the official RAF flypast for his 100th birthday overhead.

He and Lisa then worked together to produce a number of limited edition prints of the painting which were sold to raise much needed funds for local charities, including Springhill Hospice.

Donations can still be made to John’s page for the hospice at:

• www.justgiving.com/fundraising/john-swinden2