A heartwarming story for this difficult time.
100-year-old Dabirul Islam Choudhury has raised over £100K for victims of Coronavirus. Dabirul has taken inspiration from Colonel Tom Moore, and began walking 100 laps of his 80-metre garden on April 26. [Featured Image: Dabirul Islam Choudhury, Facebook Page]
Like Tom Moore, he also set a now modest-looking target of £1000. Just as Tom did, he smashed the target within hours and, at the time of writing, it has reached over £105,000. Dabirul plans to walk laps each day until the end of Ramadan, which runs until May 23. He will also be fasting during this period.
The money raised by Dabirul’s JustGiving page will go towards the Ramadan Family Commitment (RFC) COVID-19 Crisis Initiative. This will be spread out to COVID-19 victims in the UK and Bangladesh.
“As an individual, he is very bright and very bubbly, full of life,” said RFC project leader Farhan Musad Khan. “We like to invite people who have got a legacy, who have contributed a lot, who are inspiring and Mr. Dabirul Choudhury is one of the highest respected individuals in our community.
“He has a huge following within his family, friends and religious community.”
Dabirul Islam Choudhury was born on January 1 1920 in British Assam, now known as Bangladesh. He moved to London to study English literature in 1957, and subsequently became an accomplished poet, having published thousands of his own poems. He became a community leader in St Albans and has been responsible for many fundraising projects over the years.
Speaking to BBC London, his son Atique Choudhury, said: “When we started, we started at a small pace but he’s been increasing his number of laps he’s doing. The problem we have is that we have to try and stop him because he wants to carry on.”
So, it seems that Dabirul has no plans to slow down anytime soon! You can donate to his JustGiving page and read more about his fundraising campaign here.