Jackpot winner dies

One of Britain’s most generous lottery winners who gave away £5.5million of her fortune has died.

Barbara Wragg, 77, said hours after winning with husband Ray: “£7.6million is too much for one couple to spend.”

They helped friends, strangers and 17 separate charities, including hospitals and schools.

Barbara died this week of complications from gallstones.

At the time of the jackpot in 2000, she said: “As soon as we knew we’d won we made our decision to give much of it away.”

One early generous act was to sell their home cut-price to a first-time buyer couple and give the £20,000 surplus to local hospitals in Sheffield. As well as providing for children Mark, 54, Shaun, 48 and Amanda, 44, the Sheffield United fans funded army veterans’ reunion trips.

Barbara quit as a hospital support worker and Ray as a building firm supervisor and they did splash out on a house on a posh estate. They also stopped holidaying in Torquay after 31 years on the trot and went on cruises.

By 2013 they had enough for their retirement but kept doing the Lotto. Barbara said then: “We’d love to win again so we could give it all away and make even more people happy.”

Ray, 80, paid tribute to his wife of 56 years saying: “We were happy before we won and happy afterwards. We had a marvellous 18 years.”