This is a bright day for the newest knight

LONDON (AP) — In the end, Sir Tom didn’t need to rise.

On a day infused with emotion, Queen Elizabeth II tapped the blade of a sword once owned by her father on the slender shoulders of 100-year-old Tom Moore, making a hero of a nation a knight of the realm Friday.

Moore captivated the British public by walking 100 laps of his garden in England and raising some 33 million pounds ($40 million) for the National Health Service in April. The queen knighted him with the traditional sword tap, but the World War II veteran was not required to take a knee before the monarch.

Instead, Moore steadied himself against his now-famous walker and wheeled himself across the grass to stand in front of Elizabeth.

Afterward, reporter Chris Ship of ITV had a chance to hear first-hand about the experience from Sir Moore.

Sir Moore raised 33 million pounds in donations for NHS by walking 100 laps around his backyard as the coronavirus pandemic began to sweep across the United Kingdom.