This woman from the UK says that she has become “addicted” to helping others.
At the age of 55, Frances Connolly, former social worker and teacher from Nothern Ireland, won the EuroMillions in 2019.
She scored a whopping £115 million fortune or about $145 million.
The first thing they did was share their blessings with friends and family. In fact, she has a list prepared in advance just in case she won – and it was something she believed in since.
But their biggest beneficiary wasn’t family.
Connolly used the money to set up two charitable foundations. The first one was named after her late mother Kathleen Graham. The foundation is currently based in Northern Ireland. The second one is the PFC Trust which supports local carers, the elderly, and refugees in her hometown.
At that point, she estimates that she has given away more than half of her total winnings. She even had to keep it a secret from her husband.
Giving back to the community isn’t new to Connolly.
Connolly has volunteered with St. John Ambulance as a child. While she was studying in Belfast, she was also part of an AIDS hotline.
“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.
Currently, Connolly’s still involved in their community, especially with the unemployed, refugees, caregivers, and elderly. This woman also provided tablets for the seniors in order that they can regularly keep in touch with their families.
Connolly shares that helping others is addictive.
When the local news outlets asked Connolly whether she was happy to give so much money away, she just said: “Why wouldn’t you? I’ve done that all my life.”
According to Connolly, she would have been a millionaire anyway if she took back all the money she gave away over the years. She also spent £5,000 to buy clothes and toiletries for Ukrainian refugees.
They didn’t forget themselves, however.
To date, the biggest purchase of Connolly and her husband was a six-bedroom house in County Durham with seven acres of land. Mr. Connolly is also driving a second-hand Aston Martin.
Living luxuriously is something she frowned upon. She shared that she saw on a TV show that someone spent £25,000 on a bottle of champagne. She thought that kind of money could’ve been used better by helping people.
The couple still lives normally.
While Mr. Connolly still runs their plastics businesses, she works with the foundations she established. And even if she’s spent so much helping people, she doesn’t regret 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.”
