The Times - UK (2022-04-28)

the times | Thursday April 28 2022 15

News

A former social worker who won

£115 million on the lottery has said she is

now “addicted” to helping others and

has already donated about half of her

fortune.

Frances Connolly, 55, and her hus-

band, Patrick, 57, who live in Hartle-

pool, won the Euromillions jackpot on

New Year’s Day 2019 and have since

given an estimated £60 million to chari-

ties and other good causes. The couple,

who have three daughters and young

grandchildren, drew up a spending plan

after winning but their donations have

already exceeded what they had origi-

nally allocated up to 2032.

Connolly, who is from Northern Ire-

land, says she loves the feeling of help-

ing others: “It gives you a buzz and it’s

addictive,” she said.

After ensuring family and friends

were secure, her husband now runs

plastic manufacturing businesses while

she spends her time working for the

PFC Trust, a charity the couple formed

after their win.

The charity’s aim is to “give some-

thing back to Hartlepool” through initi-

atives including helping the town’s fur-

ther educational college, providing for

local carers and ensuring refugees in

the area are settled.

Money has also been put towards the

Kathleen Graham Trust, which per-

forms a similar role for communities in

Strabane and Belfast and is named after

TMS

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Best woman

for the job

John Prescott is to have a sex

change. In a piece of gender-blind

casting, the role of the former

deputy prime minister in Tony!, a

rock opera about the Blair years, is

to be played by a woman. Well, if

Glenda Jackson can do King Lear,

why shouldn’t Rosie Strobel be Two

Jags? The production, which opens

in June at the Park Theatre in north

London, has been co-written by the

comedian Harry Hill and is

described as “Yes, Minister meets

The Rocky Horror Show”. Strobel,

above, was recently in One Man,

Two Guvnors. Should be ideal

practice for playing someone who is

eternally having to serve the needs

of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Emmanuel Macron was pelted with

tomatoes yesterday as he visited a

Parisian suburb. The president

resisted the urge to remark, as Harold

Wilson did when hit by an egg, that

the cost of living can’t be that bad if

people are throwing away food. He

got off lightly: the Roman emperor

Vespasian was bombarded with

turnips on a visit to an African colony.

Must have been those Latin roots my

Classics master told me about.

cookie cutter

You learn a lot about politicians

from their favourite biscuit, which is

why Mumsnet ends interviews by

asking for it. David Cameron chose

oatcakes, Boris Johnson chocolate

digestives and Andy Burnham went

for, er, chips and gravy. Yesterday

was Rishi Sunak’s turn and the

chancellor chose Maryland cookies.

“I have one most days,” he said.

That should stop all that gossip

about the former green card-holder

planning to jet off to America once

he fails to become prime minister.

losing track

After I wrote about Suggs getting

off a train between stations, I had

an email from Sandy Pratt, who

says he was travelling in the days of

slam-door trains with an inebriated

commuter who assumed that a

pause meant they’d reached his

station. “He opened the door and

fell on to the tracks,” Pratt says.

“Clambering back into the train, he

sheepishly apologised, saying ‘sorry,

wrong side’, opened the other door

and again fell on to the tracks.” And

they say that too much alcohol can

make you go off the rails.

The actor Stanley Tucci now lives in

London but he likes to honour part

of his American heritage almost

every evening. He told Lackey Jack at

the GQ Food and Drink Awards that

the perfect Martini (“half a shot of

vermouth, three to four shots of good

gin or vodka”) should always use

American shot measures. Why?

Turns out they’re almost 10ml larger.

clere and present danger

As the setting for Downton Abbey,

Highclere Castle is one of the most

recognisable homes in the land.

Trying telling that to Amazon. Lady

Carnarvon, the owner, says that

deliveries often fail to arrive. On

registering a complaint, the online

firm asked if the property had “any

distinguishing features”. Her staff

replied: “Large building with towers,

visible from some miles.” Then

Amazon asked if there were any

directions to help the driver, to

which the answer was: “Follow the

brown tourist signs and then the car

parker’s directions.” I hope that

helped to narrow it down.

patrick kidd

How to spend £115m

jackpot? Give it away

Laurence Sleator Connolly’s late mother. Both were

particularly active during lockdown,

providing PPE for frontline workers

and tablets for children to help with

home-schooling and for older people

suffering social isolation.

Asked why they were giving away so

much, Connolly, who says she still

keeps a jar with coppers and coins in,

said: “Oh, who needs all that money?

I’ve done that all my life. I’m not being

funny, I’d have been a millionaire any-

way if I took back all the money I’ve

given away over the years. People do

ask, ‘How did you cope with that

amount of money?’ I said, ‘I never did.

It wasn’t in the bank two days.’ ”

She said her most extravagant pur-

chase had been an electric Jaguar for

£60,000 and a six-bedroom house in Co

Durham. Her husband drives an Aston

Martin — albeit a secondhand one.

Asked about her advice for anyone who

suddenly gains lots of money, she said:

“If you’re stupid before you get it, you’re

going to be stupid afterwards. Money’s

not going to make you sensible.” But,

she added: “Money liberates you to be

the person that you want to be.”

Frances Connolly

has donated an

estimated £60m

in three years