100-year-old Dabirul Islam Choudhury has been made an OBE in the Queen’s birthday honours after he raised £420,000 for COVID-19 relief. He set himself a challenge of 100 laps around his communal garden whilst fasting in Ramadan.

Mr. Choudhury walked 970 laps in his garden in Bow, East London, during Ramadan this year! From the £420,000 that he raised, £116,000 was donated to the NHS. Mr. Choudhury donated the rest of the money to 30 charities in 52 countries as part of the Ramadan Family Commitment (RFC) COVID-19 crisis initiative.

The son of Mr. Choudhury, Atique, praised his father’s efforts in The Independent: “Where we are from in Bangladesh, we don’t get much recognition for the work that we do, so this is for all the people who contributed towards my dad’s success and all the victims of Covid-19.”

Continue to Raise Money

His son went on to say: “He said his work hasn’t finished and he’s going to carry on working and raising money for people affected by Covid.”

Mr. Choudhury’s family are extremely proud of his wonderful achievement and honoured by the recognition. In May this year, he also received praise from the Labour Party Leader, Sir Keir Starmer, who tweeted: “On behalf of @UKLabour, I would like to thank Dabirul Islam Choudhury for his incredible fundraising effort. I know he has now raised well over £150,000 for those affected by coronavirus in the UK and Bangladesh. He is an inspiration to us all.”