{"id":1189472,"date":"2026-09-06T10:35:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T10:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1189472\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T10:35:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T10:35:23","slug":"northern-ireland-lottery-winner-who-gave-away-half-of-115m-prize-says-its-human-nature-to-share-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1189472\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland lottery winner who gave away half of \u00a3115m prize says \u2018it\u2019s human nature to share\u2019 \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Northern Irish National Lottery<\/a> winner who has given away half of her \u00a3115 million winnings has said it is human nature to help others.<\/p>\n

Frances Connolly has set up a charitable trust to support good causes since winning the enormous EuroMillions jackpot with husband Paddy in 2019.<\/p>\n

In honour of her 60th birthday, seven athletes who appreciated her support for young sporting talent will undertake a series of gruelling challenges to raise money for the couple\u2019s PFC Trust, which funds good causes in the North East of England.<\/p>\n

Frances, who was a social worker and teacher, helped others from a young age while she was growing up in Northern Ireland, well before the life-changing lottery win.<\/p>\n

\"Concern<\/a>\"Relic<\/a><\/p>\n

Frances Connolly, who won \u00a3115m on the lottery in 2019, is launching her latest charity venture via her charity foundation the PFC Trust at Middlesbrough Velodrome.<\/p>\n

Her father was a fan of country and western music, with Dolly Parton a favourite.<\/p>\n

Frances described the singer, who died last month aged 80, as an \u201cinspiration\u201d for her philanthropy.<\/p>\n

After Parton\u2019s death, it was said she could have been a billionaire had she not given so much of her wealth away to causes such as child literacy.<\/p>\n

Frances and Paddy estimate they have given away half of their lottery winnings over the years.<\/p>\n

Frances, a grandmother who has three daughters, told the PA news agency: \u201cIt depends on what you want in life. If your ambition is to be the richest person in the world and be influencing presidents, then you need to keep all your money, or you need to keep a lot of your money.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I don\u2019t know anybody who doesn\u2019t share something.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s in mankind to share when you get to a level where you\u2019ve got enough.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019Enough\u2019 is a different level for everybody.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe if we had been younger I\u2019d have kept more, maybe you\u2019d be a bit more nervous about how much you could give away, but unless I intended to live forever \u2013 I was 50-whatever when I won it \u2013 so even being generous, I was well over half-way through.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo as long as the kids are sorted and they had enough to live comfortable, nice lives, I didn\u2019t see the point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ConnollyFrances Connolly launching her latest charity venture at Middlesbrough Velodrome (Tom Wilkinson\/PA) <\/p>\n

Paddy continues to run plastics businesses and the couple enjoy good holidays and have a large house on Teesside, but they remain aware of value for money, buying a second hand Cartier watch or a used Aston Martin.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cWe have a lovely life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always tell people, we have the same life, we just live it bigger.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, we haven\u2019t particularly changed, if you talk to my friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frances was delighted with the support of the athletes taking part in the 60 for 60 Challenge, where the team will run, swim or cycle a total of 60 miles.<\/p>\n

Starting with a family fun day at Middlesbrough Velodrome on Sunday, there will be a series of tough events, culminating in a team taking on the Great North Run for the trust.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cThey wanted to put something back into the community, and I\u2019m delighted, I couldn\u2019t have been given a better present.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am at pains to explain to people that despite being a millionaire, I can\u2019t cure poverty, and I certainly can\u2019t do everything that\u2019s needed to be done on my own.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a team of hundreds of people who work with me all the time.<\/p>\n

\"ConnollyFrances Connolly was a social worker and teacher (Tom Wilkinson\/PA) <\/p>\n

\u201cI put a message out \u2013 \u2018we\u2019re having a fun day on Sunday\u2019 \u2013 there\u2019s people baking cakes for us, people turning up to sell raffle tickets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have 50 volunteers that come on the night of our ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get help and support every single day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people just need to be asked, and they just need to have that opportunity to do exactly what I do and change lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trust has bought respite caravans so young carers can take a proper break, funded loneliness projects and digital tech for older people, delivered emergency food parcels, and put defibrillators into local sports clubs.<\/p>\n

Paul Hewitson, who will take on the Great North Run for the trust, said: \u201cShe has set such an example, and we wanted to help through sport, as we all know how vital it is for young people to live healthier lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

To donate, visit justgiving.com\/campaign\/60for60challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Northern Irish National Lottery winner who has given away half of her \u00a3115 million winnings has said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1189473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[322302,18847,14981,322303,322304,104796,62303,40320,1144,39204,322305,17425,16,15],"class_list":["post-1189472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-60-for-60-challenge","tag-dolly-parton","tag-euromillions","tag-frances-connolly","tag-good-causes","tag-great-north-run","tag-lottery","tag-north-east","tag-northern-ireland","tag-pa-exclusive","tag-pfc-trust","tag-philanthropy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1189472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1189473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1189472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1189472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1189472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}