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Good morning. I find the death of Captain Sir Tom Moore an incredibly sad moment in our national crisis and many of my friends say they feel like they’ve lost someone they knew. I hope his family know how much he meant to so many of us after making the headlines last year for his sponsored laps around his garden. The disease was frightening; the lockdown was depressing. But here was a 99-year-old veteran who wouldn't give in, and he embarrassed those of us who were tempted to give up. If Sir Tom could find the courage to walk on, so could we. And the fact that he had served his country in the Second World War was a reminder that previous generations had been through even tougher times than this - and prevailed. I know that some people feel the British go on about the War a bit too much, but for many of us it isn't just a historical event, it's a moral template for how to behave. We tell ourselves that we got through it united and without complaint. This is not 100 per cent true of course but it gives is an image of our past that gives us something to aspire to, so that we know how to act in times of trouble. In her broadcast last April, the Queen drew a comparison between now and then - and reflecting upon the medical workers risking their lives on the frontline, and those dutifully staying at home, she said she felt sure we were the same country that had got through the war. She ended her broadcast by quoting Vera Lynn: "we will meet again." The Queen's Christian faith gives those words added meaning. The cruel truth of war and pandemic is that we don't all get to meet again - not in this life. But some of us believe strongly that we can in the next. I am grateful to Sir Tom for one other thing, which is that he has gifted us a role model of someone who was old. Too often today, the old are cast as universally vulnerable or even, that hideous word, a "burden". This prejudice has been answered. Sir Tom showed us the value of experience and wisdom, and that age need not be a barrier to acts of courage and kindness. The message I take in the middle of this dark season is to persevere, to make the most of life - because if Sir Tom could leave the world a better place at the age of one hundred, well, I really have no excuse not to do my bit as well.