How heartwarming that someone who will always be remembered from this lethal coronavirus is a 99-year-old veteran, Captain Tom Moore, who has captured the affection and spirit of our country. From his humble desire to raise a £1000 by walking in his garden, he has now reached a staggering £28 million (and rising) with just days to go to his 100th.

Tom is now a national treasure with royal status - opening Harrogate Nightingale Hospital, number one in the charts with Michael Ball, 70,000 birthday cards a day arriving at his local post office, and demands for him to be knighted!

Is this the new era of real people doing vital real work who will now gain the respect of a grateful nation - instead of celebrity culture?

We all know now who the real stars are in a world wide COVID-19 crisis - and they won’t appear in Hello magazine. Hospital front line doctors, nurses, cleaners, porters, paramedics, ambulance and lorry drivers, supermarket workers and military personnel, delivery drivers, postal staff, refuse collectors, pharmacies and care workers (including my own grand-daughter) who have all been overlooked, unsung, poorly-paid heroes.

These are the Battle of Britain Spitfire pilots of today, who all deserve a medal.

Compare them with the Premier League player who refused a 12.5 per cent pay cut on his £350,000-a-week pay...

Keith Massey, Bishopthorpe, York

Well done Press - keep up the good work

The medical profession is much praised these days, and rightly so.

But journalists get less praise, even though their work is also important in this time of crisis.

Each day one of my high points is reading the ‘Press’ and the ‘Times.’

Living in lockdown, I feel loneliness gnawing at me, as at everybody else. But the loneliness would be worse without the papers, which keep me in touch with the world and alleviate my anxiety.

I would be more anxious if I thought that the news I get was not credible or reliable. At the same time I worry about all those people who are less particular about the news, and buy into fake news.

It seems, for instance, that some people believe that the 5G network for mobile phones helps spread the coronavirus. I know that there are computer viruses, but this is ridiculous.

I hope that papers like ‘The Press’ will stay in business and continue to tell us what is really happening.

David Martin,

Rosedale Avenue,

Acomb, York