LONDON (AFP) - A 99-year-old British World War II veteran on Wednesday (April 15) had raised over 4 million pounds (S$7.13 million) for health workers on the coronavirus frontline, crashing the donation website hosting his appeal.

Mr Tom Moore, a captain who served in India, is being sponsored to complete 100 lengths of his 25-metre garden, with the aid of a frame, in time for his 100th birthday at the end of the month.

He originally planned to raise 1,000 pounds for a National Health Service charity after receiving treatment for a broken hip and cancer.

But he has now smashed the million mark and completed 70 laps of his garden in Bedfordshire, south England.

"It's marvellous for our doctors and nurses on the front line," he said of the money raised.

"In the last war it was soldiers in uniform on the front line. This time our army are the doctors and nurses (in) uniforms," he told ITV's Good Morning Britain television show.

"We will survive this."

More than 70,000 people have contributed funds, with the rate of donations causing the JustGiving page to temporarily crash.

The BBC reported that money raised by Mr Moore and others for the charity is being spent on well-being packs for NHS staff, rest and recuperation rooms, electronic devices to enable hospital patients to keep in contact with loved ones, and working with community groups to support patients once they have been discharged from hospitals.