A lottery winner has had a tricky chat with her husband – for obliterating her charity donations budget.
Frances Connolly, 55, from Hartlepool in Co Durham, has handed about £11million to good causes in 2022. It’s roughly what she had agreed to donate over the course of 10 years.
The ex-teacher, who has given away more than half the EuroMillions £115m jackpot the couple won in 2019, said: “I get to change people’s lives. I’m addicted to it.”
The winner, who has already given away half of the jackpot, is in hot water with her hubby - for donating another £11m to total strangers.
Real life ‘Fairy Godmother’ Ms Connolly was given a ‘budget’ by husband Patrick because she is ‘addicted’ to helping others.
After holding a charity gala night which raised £100,000, she told how giving to good causes ‘gives her a buzz’.
She said: “I get to change people’s lives every day if I want to. Helping other people and doing something to help other people will lift you.
“If you can give to others, whether it’s time or money, it’s really important, it gives you a buzz. It’s addictive. I’m addicted to it now.”
Frances, a former social worker and teacher, has splashed cash set aside for charities over the next 10 years in the space of six months.
Heartbroken by ‘all the poverty in the world’, the simple act of giving provides more pleasure than a sprawling £2m home and Aston Martin.
On her latest giveaway, she says: “I’m at about 10 or 11 million paid directly to charity, but I don’t keep a tally in case Paddy finds it.
“He gave me an annual budget for good causes. We set one this year, I agreed to it. I’ve already spent all the money. It was to take us up to 2032.
“We might have to revise it.” She joked: “People do ask, ‘How did you cope with that amount of money?’
“I say: ‘I never did. It wasn’t in the bank for two days’. Frances has just given away £5,000 to buy clothes and toiletries for Ukrainian refugees.
And she agreed to fund school transport fees for a young asylum seeker after he was forced to move home.
She explained: “If you can do good things for deserving people, why wouldn’t you just do it?
“It makes no sense to me to have that kind of money and not use it to do good in the world.”
She saw a TV show where a Monaco high roller spent £25,000 on a bottle of champagne, and immediately thought that could have put a young person on the property ladder.
The Connollys recently bought a £50,000 caravan for young carers.
They have set up ‘Local Heroes’ awards, helped OAPS connect with loved ones by donating electronic tablets and provided pyjamas and laptops for hospitals during lockdown.
Frances was a St John Ambulance volunteer aged nine and set up an Aids helpline as a student in Belfast.
Once of Moira, Northern Ireland but now living in Hartlepool, Co Durham, the kind hearted couple hit the jackpot on New Year’s Day 2019.
Frances drew up a list of people and causes she would give to.
Two charitable foundations, the PFC Trust in Hartlepool and the Irish-based Kathleen Graham Foundation, named after Frances’ mum, began with £1m donations.
The initial £60m giveaway included their three grandchildren, eight siblings, 15 nieces and nephews, four great nieces and nephews, as well as complete strangers.
In an earlier interview, Frances said: “We decided very early on that our daughters were not going to get tens of millions.
“They got more than anybody else, they got enough to buy a house, and live comfortably, but they will have to work for anything else they want.
“They will get more when we die. The rest we will be giving away to charity. We did not want to be dishing out loads and loads to them straight away.
Frances is proud of the way daughters Katrina, 34, a mum-of-two, Natalie, 26, a student, and her twin Fiona have helped others, just like their parents.
She jokes that Patrick’s first purchase would have been “an electric fence and machine gun turrets” at their impressive seven acre property to protect their winnings.
“He tells everybody I’m the one doing the charities, but it’s his money and if he wasn’t happy with what we’re doing we wouldn’t be doing it.”
The couple organised a glittering gala dinner at Hartlepool College on Saturday.
An auction sold Cristiano Ronaldo ’s signed shirt, a diamond necklace worth £4,500 from Boodles, a break at a top Northumberland hotel (complete with Aston Martin to tour the area) and a holiday in Donegal. All the money raised will go to local causes.
Frances added: “This is an area that needs support. One of the things that makes me most proud is the support we’ve been able to give to kids who just never get a break from looking after their loved ones.
“Money liberates you to be the person you want to be. I’d say to anyone in our situation: ‘Think about the person you want to be.
“The money will free you to be that person.”
