The Captain Tom Foundation is under renewed scrutiny after a woman who helped to launch the charity appeal claimed she was “cut out” by the family and told she had “no right” to talk about her role.
Daisy Souster, 31, said she provided public relations services to Hannah Ingram-Moore, the daughter of the NHS fundraiser Captain Sir Tom Moore, and her husband, Colin, early in the fundraising campaign.
Sir Tom raised £38.9 million for the NHS, including gift aid, by walking 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday at the height of the first national Covid-19 lockdown in April 2020.
Souster claimed she was asked by the family to write the “life-changing” press release announcing Sir Tom’s charity appeal after an idea that had arisen during a family barbecue.
She wrote on LinkedIn: “It was a truly amazing experience for me as I had only just come off maternity leave and set up as a freelance PR. It was such a special time but I had to cut ties with the family when they cut me out and told me I was no longer able to talk about the work I had done.
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“I would like to make it very clear that initially the family were extremely supportive of me and thankful for all that I had done, but for reasons unknown to me, they changed. I had been contacted by a national PR awards organiser and was told they would like to put me forward for five awards. I told the family immediately and the family told me to go for it and would be on my table cheering me on.
“A week later I was told by Hannah Ingram-Moore that I had no right to talk about my work/involvement with the PR, even though a week before they said I should go for the PR awards for launching that first news story.”
Souster said she had been entered into five awards with the public relations trade magazine PRWeek. Haymarket, the publisher of PRWeek, told the BBC: “In 2020, Hannah Ingram-Moore stated to PRWeek that the Captain Tom family and its representatives do not give permission for anyone to enter Captain Sir Tom to the PRWeek Awards. Consequently, any submissions entered for Captain Sir Tom were removed.”
After this, Souster wrote, she “severed ties with the family”. “I had a young child at the time, a partner who was on furlough and we were in a national lockdown. This change in attitude towards me caused me untold distress as I started to see my work accreditation taken away from me.”
Shortly before Souster stopped working for the family, in May 2020, Sir Tom announced plans on Twitter/X to share his autobiography. Tomorrow Will Be a Good Day was published four months later, and appeared to credit Ingram-Moore with the public relations campaign.
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“After her years in business and running a company of her own, she knew exactly what to do. She [Hannah Ingram-Moore] wrote a press release and it was sent out locally,” he wrote.
Souster added: “Just to clarify, I had no involvement with them or The Captain Tom Foundation shortly after Tom’s 100th birthday as the story had become so big that a freelance PR (myself) could no longer manage the unprecedented influx of press and I happily liaised with a PR agency for the handover.”
Souster also claimed that she set up the JustGiving page and managed Sir Tom’s Twitter/X account.
The foundation was plunged into crisis last year when the regulator opened a statutory inquiry after it emerged that Club Nook, a company registered by the Ingram-Moores days before the charity was incorporated, had made £809,000 in its first year.
Last week it was revealed that the foundation would be shut down when the Charity Commission completes an investigation into its finances.
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The family’s barrister confirmed the embattled charity’s future at a Planning Inspectorate hearing to determine whether to demolish an unauthorised spa pool at their £1.2 million home.
Sir Tom was knighted by Elizabeth II during a unique open-air ceremony at Windsor Castle in the summer of 2020. He died in February 2021. Ingram-Moore and The Captain Tom Foundation have been approached for comment.
