Capt Tom dreamed of steak and chips and stayed positive in final days, says daughter

Captain Sir Tom Moore told his daughter that he looked forward to getting back to fundraising after he was checked into hospital.

The national hero died two weeks ago at Bedford Hospital after contracting pneumonia and coronavirus.

He became a household name during the first lockdown when his fundraising efforts rocketed donations to nearly £33 million.

Now daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore has told that at first they all believed he would come out the other side when he was checked into hospital - and he couldn't wait for a plate of steak and chips.

"When he went into hospital, we really all believed he'd come back out," she told John Maguire on BBC Breakfast. "We thought the oxygen would help and he would be robust enough, but the truth was he just wasn't.

"He was old, and he couldn't fight it."

Captain Sir Tom wanted to keep fundraising (PA)

She continued: "We chatted, and we had some really lovely conversations, and this was before the final day, and I can honestly say the thing that he was so proud of, it oozed out of him, he said 'I'm coming back out, there's more fundraising in me. I'm coming back out to walk.'"

The Captain Tom Foundation, established earlier this year, aims to continue his legacy.

Hannah added: "He was so proud of the foundation, he hadn't articulated so much before but he really felt pride in that lasting legacy."

Hannah explained her father's wish to keep fundraising (BBC)

Captain Tom's family paid tribute on BBC Breakfast (Getty Images)

And in their last conversation together, Hannah - clad in full PPE - asked her father what he wanted to eat when he got home.

"He was really excited about coming out for steak and chips and getting his frame back outside and his walker," she shared.

"The last real conversation was positive and about carrying on and that's a lovely place to be."

Queen Elizabeth knighted Captain Tom in July (Getty)

Capt Tom's death sparked a flood of tributes on social media, and even a hand-written one to his family from Buckingham Palace.

Hannah said she thought the Queen felt "genuine loss."

"I joked with my friends and said if it weren't for Covid they'd have gone off for a cup of tea and had a good chin-wag into the afternoon," she said of her father's knighting in July.

"It was two similar souls. I think she felt genuine loss. We had a lovely letter from her, it's another one of her generation."