A Maldon woman who ran 60k to raise £1,131 for the Royal British Legion Industries (RBLI) charity is asking for people to send cards to help a Second World War hero who will have to celebrate his 100th birthday in lockdown.

Lisa Hawkes signed up for the RBLI Tommy Club 10k Challenge in lockdown last year after taking up running with her friend and neighbour Alison Vincent, who is also in her support bubble.

After running a total of 150k in just four weeks by completing 15 10k runs – with the final one on 11 November, where she laid a wreath on behalf of all her supporters at Maldon War Memorial – Lisa has been bitten by both the running and fundraising bug.

Having been astonished at the level of support and donations she received from members of local community Facebook groups – including The Maldon Group and The Burnham-on-Crouch Group – Lisa felt she could help in the RBLI's bid to get as many birthday cards as possible sent into the charity for former Royal Fusilier and Legion D' Honour recipient Tommy Trotter, who has been in isolation since March.

The plan had been to give Stockton-on-Tees resident Tommy a regimental guard of honour on his birthday, but the idea had to be scrapped because of the pandemic.

This led Julia Cooper, the owner of Tommy's favourite pub, the military-themed Don War Memorial Bar, to take to social media to launch a campaign to send birthday cards to the World War Two veteran. Julia's project was then picked up by supporters of the Tommy Club, which just so happens to share the former soldier's name – and now the campaign has become a national effort.

Having already experienced the generosity of the Maldon community first-hand, Lisa felt the town's residents might want to help, too.

Lisa told Maldon Nub news: "Tommy's birthday is on the same day as mine and it really made me think how it must feel to get to 100 and be alone in the current situation.

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"I believe it will make Tommy Trotter a very happy man if everyone sent him a card, and he certainly deserves that after what he did for our country."

Lisa, who works as a commercial assistant with Total Protection Group (Painting Solutions), said she has realised how important is public support for the charity, which provides support and employability services for the disabled and disadvantaged in the Armed Forces community.

She added: "There were some truly amazing individuals on the challenge. I loved every second of being a part of that and would do another challenge next year if I have time."

To take part, anyone can download a free birthday card for Tommy from the RBLI website via the link here and send it to an address where they will first be kept for Covid safety reasons. Send to Tommy Trotter, The Last Post, Cranworth Street, Thornaby, TS17 7DR.