Majority of lotto winners say they’re going to give some of their money away, but in Barbara Wragg’s case those weren’t just words. Kind-hearted woman from Sheffield scooped £7.600.000 back in 2000 and used it to help friends, strangers and dozens of charities before passing away at the age of 77.
When Barbara and her husband Ray collected their £7.600.000 windfall, they said that’s too much for one couple to spend, and they actually meant it. In the years to come they gave away around 70 per cent of their enormous fortune to 17 separate charities. Hospitals and schools benefited from their generosity, but Ms. Wragg never considered it’s something worth bragging about. As a matter of fact, she was so humble that she called their donations a selfish act because they gave them a sense of pleasure.
“You get a buzz. It’s probably a bit selfish giving money away sometimes because we did get pleasure from it. It’s like when you give somebody a Christmas present and you watch them open it and they think it’s absolutely wonderful. Well, when we’ve given people money we get that all the time,” explained Barbara.
According to her husband Ray, the last five years have been hell for his wife, who suffered with pains in her hip and back, and went through a mastectomy after breast cancer. She has died from sepsis following complications from surgery at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield – the same hospital that received hefty donations from the couple.
“It is so very sad because Barbara, who has given so much to the NHS, both working for them and charitable donations, didn’t deserve this. She was so kind and caring. She was naturally like that, even before the lottery win,” said Mr. Wragg.
