Lottery winners who used their funds to help others

A look at the people who won big and used their money to make the world a better place.

What would you do if you won the lottery?

No doubt you'd use some of your funds to help loved ones, but what about complete strangers?

These lottery winners from around the world did just that. 

Tom Crist, Canada – CA$40m ($30m, £24.5m)

When Tom Crist got the phone call in 2013 telling him he had won a whopping CA$40 million ($30m, £24.5m) on the Canadian lottery, he was heading off to play golf.

Instead of celebrating with champagne, the 64-year-old from Calgary hung up the phone and simply continued with his game, wondering what to do with the money.

When Crist later held a press conference to announce he was giving all of the cash away to cancer charities via a trust fund, he hadn’t even told his children of his windfall.

However, the former chief executive of electrical equipment distributor EECOL Electric had lost his wife of 33 years to cancer the same year, aged just 57, and decided the money was better spent helping others battling the disease.

“I’ve been fortunate enough, through my career, 44 years with a company,” he told CBC News.

“I did very well for myself. I’ve done enough that I can look after myself, for my kids, so they can get looked after into the future. I don’t really need that money.”

The majority of the cash went to the Tom Baker Centre in Calgary where his wife Jan was treated. 

Barbara & Ray Wragg, UK – £7.6m ($9.9m)

When Sheffield natives Barbara and Ray Wragg bought their winning ticket in their local supermarket in 2000, Barbara was feeling unwell and planning to ring in sick to her job as a nurse.

She never did work the shift, but the couple did win £7.6 million ($9.9m) in the national lottery.

But they decided it was too much and gave £5.5 million ($7.1m) of it away to 17 local charities, including £9,000 ($11,760) for a bladder scanner on Barbara’s old hospital ward at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, helping buy an MRI scanner for the Sheffield Children’s Hospital and donating cash to the Weston Park Hospital’s Teenage Cancer Unit.

The couple even sold their council home at a discount to first-time buyers and funded reunion trips for war veterans.

Sadly, Barbara died in 2018 aged 77.

Ray, now 80, said giving to others was their greatest pleasure.

“It's seeing the change on people's faces, the smile that lights up there – it's like they are opening their Christmas presents," he told local newspaper The Star.

Dubbed the ‘nicest lottery winners ever’, their picture even featured in their local museum’s exhibition of local heroes. 

“They are genuinely the most kind-hearted people – you cannot help but warm to them,” a spokesperson for Camelot, the national lottery operator, told The Star.

“I don't think there are any other Lottery winners quite like them.”

Anonymous, US - $3m (£2.3m)

We can’t name the person involved with this story, but it’s one worth sharing nonetheless.

In 2008, an anonymous member of Pastor Bertrand Crabbe’s congregation scooped $3 million (£2.3m) on the New York state lottery and decided to gift the whole lot to his church, the True North Community Church of Port Jefferson.

"At first, I was looking around for television cameras [thinking it was a prank]," he told video sharing site LiveLeak.com.

“But I know the integrity of this person, so I knew they weren't kidding.”

Crabbe said the parishioner who had won on the $10 (£5) Ba Da Bling scratch card told him: "This was why God put the ticket in my hands.”

Indeed, thanks to the donor’s generosity, the independent church was set for a windfall of $102,000 (£78k) a year until 2028 – likely to be topped up through tax refunds due to the church’s non-profit status.

Crabbe said the first year’s cash would be donated to Love 146, which fights human trafficking, while in subsequent years it would go towards building a new church for the 650-strong congregation and donations to other charities.

Rachel Lapierre, Canada – CA$1,000 ($744, £605) a week for life

Rachel Lapierre was working as a nurse when she won CA$1,000 ($744, £605) a week for life on the Canadian lottery in 2018.

Like many other lottery winners, the 55-year-old left her job – but not to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle.

Instead, she started her own charity called Le Book Humanitaire.

The former Miss Quebec previously ran a modelling agency but trained as a nurse after having her family, working for an emergency organisation in Quebec, and yearned to help more people in need.

Her charity, which now boasts thousands of volunteers, provides help to the homeless in Quebec, as well as making regular relief trips to India.

Funded by donations, the charity’s administration fees are paid for from Lapierre’s winnings.

"I grew up in a poor environment and saw misery and sadness,” she told the UK’s Mirror newspaper. “I told myself that, if we put it down, if we all made a small gesture, the world would be better.”