WITH less than a month to go Tom Rose of Malvern is gearing up for his fifth London Marathon and his six-year-old granddaughter, Jessica Innes, has been busy raising money to support him by selling bracelets that she made.

Tom, who is running in aid of the Royal British Legion, has been the ‘Poppy man’ for part of Malvern for 16 years, delivering all of the poppy boxes and collecting them in every year in the Barnards Green area.

His granddaughter has been making bracelets for the past few months and last Saturday the Coop on Upper Howsell Road, Malvern kindly let her mum, Hannah Rose, set her up with a little stall to sell them. She raised £98.92p.

The family live on Jamaica Road, Malvern and Jessica and her brother, Archie Innes, aged eight, go to Somers Park Primary school.

Hannah said: “I am so proud of my dad for tackling the London Marathon again at his age, he is an inspiration and I hope all the fundraising he has done for the British Legion over the years has gone some way to help veterans and their families.

“It was heartwarming seeing my daughter Jess make the bracelets and want to raise as much money as possible to help support her grandad. She is a special girl.”

Tom Rose lives in Highfield Road, Malvern. He is a retired electrical engineer as well as other things. He was in the Army, serving with REME and was paratrooper and commando trained. He is still the ‘Poppy man’ for Barnards Green area and has done multiple walks and previous marathons to raise money for the British Legion.

Hannah said: “He trains regularly on the Malvern Hills, my brother trains with him. He is actually doing the London marathon too. It has been very wet so far this year making our training runs difficult.

Tom said: “My daughter Hannah has supported my annual Poppy Appeal fundraising over the years, delivering boxes, manning stalls and counting the money collected. The people and shops of Barnards Green and always been very generous in their support.”

Tom has a page on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/busyfish.busyfish

and his Just Giving page is https://royalbritishlegion.enthuse.com/pf/tom-rose