EuroMillions Winners To use £115m to Help Others with their Windfall

By Steve Ashfield

onJan 04, 2019

EuroMillions Winners to use £115m to Help Others with their Windfall

A couple from Northern Ireland are the latest EuroMillions winners and they plan to give most of their £115m haul away.Frances and Patrick Connolly, who live in Moira, County Down, regularly play lotteries but only tend to buy EuroMillions tickets when there’s a big jackpot. Frances was going to buy some tickets but forgot, so Patrick, 54, went online to buy their tickets for the New Year’s Day draw.

A Cup of Tea and a Hug

He checked the EuroMillions results on several websites and then gave his wife the fantastic news. Not quite knowing how you celebrate a £115m win, they simply had a cup of tea and a hug. A sleepless night followed before they phoned Camelot on Wednesday morning to claim their win.A shocked Frances, 52, said they want their win to “have a huge impact on the lives of other people we know and love as well as on our future too.” She added that the most important task they have had this week is making a list of people they want to help.So far, that list is up to 50 people and most of them have no idea they have been included. "It's going to be so much fun giving it away,” said the generous EuroMillions winner. She’d always hoped to win a lottery jackpot one day.However, she always thought that they’d do so but end up splitting it with lots of other players. This time though they were the only ones able to match the numbers 01-08-11-25-28 and the two Lucky Stars 04 and 06.

Spending Plans Galore

They are planning on using some of the money themselves. Mrs Connolly plans to do a PhD in clinical psychology. Her husband was possibly starting a new job in March but has decided to retire for now.Their spending plans include buying a Jaguar car, but a second-hand one. Patrick just wants to buy his wife of 28 years lots of presents. A holiday to Mauritius, trips to watch rugby matches and an F1 Grand Prix are also on their shopping list.