Woman who helped launch the Captain Sir Tom Moore charity appeal says she was silenced by Hannah Ingram-Moore
24 October 2023, 08:57 | Updated: 25 October 2023, 13:27
A woman who helped launch Captain Sir Tom Moore’s charity appeal has said she was told she had ‘no right’ to talk about the role she played.
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Daisy Souter, 31, a freelance public relations worker, said she helped to set up the original campaign but was later silenced by Captain Tom’s daughter, Hannah Ingram-Moore.
Captain Tom raised more than £38m for NHS charities in 2020 by walking up and down the garden of his Bedfordshire home. He died in February 2021.
In a post on LinkedIn, Ms Souter said she was approached by the family to write an initial press release, which began the story - which she sent to media contacts.
She also says she set up the JustGiving page and managed Captain Tom’s Twitter account for a time.
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"Initially the family were extremely supportive of me and thankful for all that I had done, but for reasons unknown to me, they changed," she wrote.
Ms Souter was entered into five awards with the public relations trade magazine PRWeek.
She said that "a week later I was told by Hannah Ingram-Moore [Capt Sir Tom's daughter] that I had no right to talk about my work/involvement with the PR".
A spokesperson for Haymarket PR, the publisher of PRWeek, told the BBC: "In 2020, Hannah Ingram-Moore stated to PRWeek that The Captain Tom Family and its representatives do not give permission for anyone to enter Captain Sir Tom to the PRWeek Awards.
"Consequently, any submissions entered for Capt Sir Tom were removed."
Ms Souter posted: “I would like to make it very clear that initially the family were extremely supportive of me and thankful for all that I had done, but for reasons unknown to me, they changed.
"I had been contacted by a national PR awards organiser and was told they would like to put me forward for five awards. I told the family immediately and the family told me to go for it and would be on my table cheering me on.
"A week later I was told by Hannah Ingram Moore that I had no right to talk about my work/involvement with the PR, even though a week before they said I should go for the PR awards for launching that first news story.
"I severed ties with the family after this. I had a young child at the time, a partner who was on furlough and we were in a national lockdown.
"This change in attitude towards me caused me untold distress as I started to see my work accreditation taken away from me, and let’s be honest I’m unlikely to ever break a story like that again. It was truly one of a kind - and it certainly should have remained a positive, incredible one at that.
"Just to clarify, I had no involvement with them or The Captain Tom Foundation shortly after Tom’s 100th birthday as the story had become so big that a freelance PR (myself) could no longer manage the unprecedented influx of press and I happily liaised with a PR agency for the handover.
"Captain Tom was a true beacon of hope during those dark times for all of us. It deeply saddens me that after such success the debacle unfolding is shadowing his sterling efforts."
Earlier this month Hannah Ingram-Moore revealed she kept the profits - £800,000 from her father’s three books.
She said her father wanted them to keep the money and that there had been no agreement with him that it would go to charity.
