Captain Sir Tom Moore's daughter got tearful as she slammed claims she had swindled her father's NHS fundraising cash.
In an exclusive interview with The Mirror, Hannah Ingram-Moore - who is interim chief executive of the charity - opened up about the "hurtful" allegations that she had taken the money from her father's charity.
Accounts for the foundation showed £162,000 was awarded in its first year, whilst £240,000 of £400,000 in outgoings went on fundraising and administration. The foundation also reimbursed £50,000 of expenditure to companies run by Hannah and husband Colin, including their consultancy firm Maytrix.
However, Hannah denies she was being paid for her work, revealing all about why the accounts look the way they do.
Speaking on ITV's This Morning today with hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, Hannah responded to the trolls, who quizzed why she was always there when her father was being interviewed about his charity walk.
She said: "My father couldn't hear, that's the only reason I sat there with him in the interview. He'd lived with us for 13 years."
Hannah insisted she and the family are just trying to "guard her father's legacy".
"I am guarding my father’s legacy, we would never hurt it. But I would never be able to sit on here and tell you something that’s not true. It’s clear, our accounts are there to be seen. But we are not hiding anything," she said.
"There’s nothing wrong, we haven’t made any false action and I genuinely think that the vast majority of people know that."
During her chat with The Mirror, Hannah explained that the foundation was set up after the initial £38.9million funding, and so the full millions of pounds was given to NHS Charities Together to distribute.
"People think the foundation received £38.9million raised by my father. All money went to NHS Charities Together, which was responsible for distributing it," she explained.
"To read things like ‘Capt Sir Tom’s daughter pumps tens of thousands of pounds into her own companies’ has been heartbreaking because it simply isn’t true. In the first year, Colin and I were not paid a penny. I did step into a paid role in year two. But to suggest I used this for financial gain is utterly ludicrous."
She added: "All the trustees did was go to agencies and ask what the benchmark salary for the role was. The upper salary was £150,000 and the lower end was £65,000. They never offered me £150,000. In fact, it’s much nearer the lower end."
