EuroMillions winners who scooped £115million promise to make 50 friends rich

A kind-hearted couple who won almost £115million on the EuroMillions have vowed to share their vast fortune among family and friends.

Patrick and Frances Connolly have drawn up a list of 50 lucky people who will benefit from their huge windfall.

They became the UK’s fourth biggest lottery winners when they scooped £114,969,775.70 on New Year’s Day.

Going public, Frances, 52, said: “This is a massive sum of money and we want it to have a huge impact on the lives of other people we know and love, as well as on our future, too.”

And one of their three daughters joked of her generous parents: “Dad will have to be careful or Mum will give it all away.”

Patrick got the lucky dip ticket online after Frances “nagged” him to buy one.

When he looked up the results online that night, he rechecked their numbers four times, saying: “I was sure it was a scam.”

The pair had to wait until the next morning to confirm the win, and sat in silence when they realised the size of it.

Frances said: “We don’t really do excited. Perhaps I raised my voice just a bit at the time when I found out, but we celebrated with a cup of tea and a hug.”

Patrick added: “We really didn’t know what to do or how to react and we didn’t sleep a wink that night. We rang Camelot at 8am to verify the win.

“Then it started to dawn on us that it was true, even though it still hasn’t really sunk in.” As well as helping others, the couple, who have three grandchildren, have drawn up their own shopping list.

Patrick, 54, fancies a holiday to Mauritius and wants to spoil his wife.

Frances has her eye on a second-hand Jaguar but insisted: “There’s no way I’m joining the jet set.” The pair also plan to buy a bungalow. They currently live in a rented house in Moira, Co Down.

Patrick said: “We are quite level-headed people. We are not overly extravagant – yet.”

They had been considering moving to Croydon, South London, where Patrick had been offered a job as an operations manager, but he has decided to retire since their windfall.

Frances, who previously worked as an educational programme co-ordinator, plans to do a PhD in clinical psychology.

Asked whether she would have to increase her personal security, Frances joked: “I’ve never met anybody I couldn’t take down myself, to be fair.”

She insisted the win would not change them but said deciding who will benefit from it would be tough.

The mum-of-three said: “I’m going to cry myself to sleep that I can’t help everybody. That will be really tough.”

She has already decided to support St Francis FC, the community football club in Hartlepool she used to work at.

The couple’s twin daughters Fiona and Natalie, 24, played there. Fiona still lives in the town. Trevor Robinson, 38, who succeeded Frances as club secretary, said: “I’m overwhelmed. It feels like we’ve won the lottery, too.

“She’s sharing her happiness with a grassroots club for children and families.

“At the moment we’ve got three cabins and a portaloo that can’t be cleaned because we can’t get the vehicle to it.” The Connollys, who met at a wedding in 1989, lived there for 25 years before returning to Northern Ireland in 2014.

Eldest daughter Katrina Smith, 30, lives in their former family home. She said her kind-hearted mum could end up giving all the cash away.

She went on: “They’ve always been really generous and have spent their lives helping people out who need it.

"Mum would never see anyone go without, even though we never had much ourselves.

“When we were growing up, Mum would give people money if they were struggling and she would give them lifts to hospital and football.

“She always puts everyone else before herself.” Katrina, who lives with husband Craig and their two sons, added of the win: “Mum rang to tell me yesterday but I didn’t believe it until I saw the picture of them with a cheque.

“We’re a very close family but I don’t see my parents as much as I’d like, because it’s hard to afford the flights back and forth to Ireland.

“Now they’ll be able to see their grandchildren more.” Her sister Natalie, who has been studying in New Zealand, was flying back to the UK yesterday.

Maxine Duncan, 50, the Connollys’ former neighbour in Hartlepool, said: “It’s proof that good things happen to good people. If you ever needed anything, they’d always be there. They’re the loveliest couple.”

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