Anonymous lottery winners' incredible gesture after pocketing £42,000,000 jackpot
What would you do if you won the lottery?
One family in France showed that they would use their new found millions to help support their community
Back in 2009 a family living in a small town won a whopping £42.6 million on the EuroMillions, and the residents of the whole town are still benefitting today.
The lucky family, who have remained anonymous, won €50 million, equivalent to around £42.6 million, and the town's mayor has now spoken about how they used some of their winnings around the town.
Advert
Fabienne Godichaud is the mayor of Saint-Michel in France, and told the AFP: "It's a bit like a fairy tale. The entire community is actually benefiting from this windfall.
"These people could have chosen not to share it with their fellow citizens. It's a wonderful lesson in civic responsibility."
After scoring their enormous win, the family began their generosity back in 2009, when they went to the local nursing home and settled its debt, as well as making a donation of £343,000 to a scheme in the town called 'Housing For All'.
This donation was enough to make up 20 percent of the annual budget of the entire town, the Mirror reports.
And their good deeds have continued over the years, with another incident seeing them spending £69,000 on upgrading the facilities at the school's cafeteria so that the children could have a good meal at lunchtime.
Speaking to La Ici La Rochelle, mayor Godichaud said: "Their wish has now translated into a capital investment, addressing a reality: our schools no longer meet current standards regarding acoustics, air conditioning, or - at the very least- summer comfort."
As for the family themselves, they have tried as much as they can to keep their identities a secret, not wishing to advertise their money or good deeds and living much as they did before.
The town's residents even shared their appreciation of the gesture by signing a guestbook at the town hall.
One mum in the town wrote: "I explained to my children the beauty of your gesture and the fact that such generosity is the mark of people with huge hearts."
The first EuroMillions draw was held on 13 February 2004, and since then there have been 603 tickets which have won the enormous jackpot.
Out of those, it's the UK which has had the most winners, making up 137 out of those 603, while France has had 133 winners in that time.
But while the UK has the most overall winners, nobody in the UK has ever won the biggest possible prize on the EuroMillions, which is a whopping £214 million.
On 25 September there will be another 'Superdraw' on the EuroMillions, where the grand prize will be around £110 million, or €130 million.
"Superdraws are special events which only take place a few times a year. They work in the same way as regular draws, apart from one exciting difference - the jackpot is guaranteed to be huge!" the website says.
"There doesn’t need to be a long run of rollovers to build up a nine-figure prize; instead, you can mark the date on your calendar to make sure that you take part.
"The money for Superdraws comes from a Reserve Fund - a pot which receives a small portion of the prize fund from every draw. The Reserve Fund is primarily used to ensure that the minimum jackpot of €17 million can always be offered, but it is also used to pay for various promotions such as Superdraws.
"Even if the jackpot is won in the draw on Tuesday 22nd September, it will be bumped all the way up to €130 million for the Superdraw."
Topics: Good News, World News, Money, Euromillions
Kit Roberts