WAR veteran and extraordinary fund raiser Captain Tom Moore will officially open the new Nightingale Hospital in Harrogate later today.

With his NHS appeal soaring to £27m the NHS decided that Captain Tom, should be their guest of honour to open the new hospital which will serve Yorkshire and Humberside,. He captured the heart of the nation when he set out to do 100 laps of his garden to raise £1,000 for the health service.

Originally from nearby Keighley Captain Tom will be attending the event virtually but said: "I’m honoured to be opening the NHS Nightingale Yorkshire and Humber and to get to thank many of the NHS workers directly. I know that having extra beds available for the sick will be reassuring to those workers, as it would have been to me when I was on the frontline. I have fought during a war and they are now fighting in a war too."

The 500 bed Nightingale Hospital has been built inside the town's Convention Centre. Sir Simon Stevens, NHS chief executive said: "Inviting Captain Moore to be our guest of honour at the opening of NHS Nightingale Yorkshire and Humber is the least we can do to thank him for his inspiring service and example.

"The Nightingales are a symbol of how people have come together as part of a nationwide effort to prepare should they be needed now or in the months to come for the greatest global health emergency in more than a century. We all hope we need to use the Nightingales as little as possible."