Almost all of us have entertained fantasies about being a lottery winner.
But the most important question, and probably the only hypothetical question that any of us entertained, is what you intend to do with that amount of money in the event that you win it.
The typical responses include luxury homes, sports cars, and various forms of luxury merchandise such as handbags and shoes. However, for this woman from the United Kingdom, it’s all about giving back.
The 2019 EuroMillions jackpot was won by Frances Connolly, who is 55 years old.
The Northern Irish native who used to work as a social worker and teach won a staggering £115 million fortune, which is equivalent to approximately $145 million.
The first thing that they did was to tell their loved ones and friends about their good fortune. In point of fact, she has a list prepared in advance just in case she wins, and this is something that she has believed in ever since she first started doing it.
However, their family was not the primary recipient of their generosity.
Connolly used the funds to establish two different foundations dedicated to charitable giving. One was given the name Kathleen Graham, after her mother who had passed away. At the moment, operations are overseen from within Northern Ireland. The second one is called the PFC Trust, and it provides assistance to local caregivers, senior citizens, and refugees in her hometown.
At that point, she estimates that she has given away more than half of her total winnings despite the fact that she still has a significant amount left. It was necessary for her to conceal this information even from her husband.
Connolly is not new to the practice of giving back to the community.
Money, as the saying goes, doesn’t change a person; rather, it merely highlights who they already are at their core. Since he was a young child, Connolly has been active in the St. John Ambulance volunteer program. In addition to her studies in Belfast, she participated in an AIDS helpline during that time.
“If I had any advice for a winner… I’d say money liberates you to be the person that you want to be.” She said as quoted by BBC.
She maintains her involvement in their community at the present time, particularly with those who are unemployed, refugees, caregivers, and the elderly. In addition to that, she gave tablets to elderly people so that they can maintain consistent communication with their families.
Connolly says that the feeling you get from helping other people is addictive.
When local news outlets questioned her about whether or not she was pleased to donate such a large sum of money, she simply responded: “Why wouldn’t you? I’ve done that all my life.”
She also stated that she would have been a millionaire regardless if she went back in time and retrieved all of the money that she had donated over the course of her life. In addition to that, she shelled out $5,000 to purchase essentials like clothing and hygiene products for refugees in Ukraine.
On the other hand, they did not forget about themselves.
The couple’s most significant investment to this point was in a home in County Durham that comprises six bedrooms and seven acres of land. In addition, Mr. Connolly is seen cruising around in a pre-owned Aston Martin.
She looked down her nose at people who lived lavish lifestyles. She mentioned that she had seen on a TV show that someone had spent $25,000 on a bottle of champagne. Connolly saw this on the show. She was of the opinion that such a sum of money could have been put to better use by assisting others.
The couple continues to live a typical life.
While she is working with the foundations that she established, their plastics businesses are still being managed by Mr. Connolly. And despite the fact that she has devoted a significant portion of her life to assisting others, she has no regrets about any of it.
“If you can do good things for deserving people, why wouldn’t you just do it?” she said, as quoted by Mirror UK, “It makes no sense to me to have that kind of money and not use it to do good in the world.”
Take a look at what this lottery winner did with the first half of her prize money.
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