Youngest lottery winner 'nearly died' after cosmetic surgery

It is everyone’s dream: to win the Lottery, retire early, buy a house somewhere hot and spoil your family rotten.

The dream, however, is realised by few. Many chase the idea of grabbing that winning Lotto ticket all their lives, only to spend more than they win in the long run. 

Those who came within touching distance of a life of rest and relaxation include Mark Gardiner.

The 61-year-old split an eye-watering £22,590,829 lottery prize with his then-business partner Paul Maddison, back in 1995 — but 27 years later is back in work after squandering the sum on bad investments and life choices.

Mr Gardiner is no doubt not alone in this. But who exactly are the UK’s biggest Lottery winners? And what happened to them after the life-changing event? Express.co.uk takes a look at some of the country’s luckiest people.

READ MORE Lottery winner ‘back at work’ after squandering £11million fortune

Anonymous, July 2022, £195million

A UK ticket-holder scooped up the record-breaking EuroMillions win for a Brit in July 2022, a stunning £195,707,000.

The sum made the person the biggest jackpot winner of all time.

Only 15 UK players have ever won a sum of more than £100million.

The winner did not come forward with their identity.

Joe and Jess Thwaite, May 2022, £184million

Last year, Joe and Jess became the UK’s biggest-ever EuroMillions winners at the time with a whopping £184,262,899.

Unlike most who choose to stay anonymous, the couple revealed their identities in a press conference, and Mr Thwaite said he had found out about their winnings through the National Lottery app.

The pair were still in bed at the time, and before telling his wife of the win, he went on to Rightmove and turned off the pricing filter and looked for a new home.

They told the press conference they had been looking to move out of their Gloucestershire home for a while, and that coming forward meant they could take their friends and family on holiday without having to explain where the money came from.

Anonymous, October 2019, £170million

Another anonymous winner, they took home a whopping £170,221,000 from the National Lottery.

Colin and Chris Weir, July 2011, £161million

The couple from Largs, North Ayrshire, were overcome with joy during a press conference announcing their winnings.

They used £2.5million of their fortune to invest in Mr Weir’s favourite football club, Partick Thistle, an investment that led to one of the stands of the stadiums being named after him.

He also acquired a 55 percent shareholding in the club.

The pair set up a charity, the Weir Charitable Trust in 2013, and donated £1 million to the Scottish independence referendum in 2014.

Things, however, took a tragic turn. Just two months after the couple split in September 2019, Mr Weir sadly passed away, aged 71.

It is believed that by this time their fortune had dwindled by £40million, with reports suggesting he was at one point burning through £100,000 a week.

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Adrian and Gillian Bayford, August 2012, £148million

Adrian and Gillian Bayford won the staggering sum in August 2012 but announced their separation just a matter of months later.

Reports in the aftermath of their break-up suggested they split the figure evenly.

Anonymous, July 2019, £123million

Anonymous, April 2021, £122million

Anonymous April 2018, £121million

Frances and Patrick Connolly, January 2019, £114million

Frances and her husband Patrick won the sum back in 2019, and have ever since pumped it into charitable causes.

Frances recently disclosed that she has already given £60 million of her fortune to efforts to help people, saying: “It’s going to be so much fun giving it away. The pleasure for me is going to be seeing people’s faces.”

On learning they had won, Frances revealed the first thing Patrick did in an interview with Sky News: “We stared at each other for about five minutes, stood up, gave each other a hug and I said I’ll go and put the kettle on, shall I?”

Anonymous, October 2010, £113million

Anonymous, June 2021, £111.5million

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