A woman who scooped the £115m EuroMillions jackpot in 2019 is "addicted" to helping people and has given away half of her winnings.

Frances Connolly, 55, from Northern Ireland and now living in Hartlepool in Co Durham, has already handed about £11million to good causes so far in 2022. It’s roughly what she had agreed to donate over the course of 10 years.

The ex-teacher, who has given away more than half the £115m jackpot the couple won in 2019, said: “I get to change people’s lives. I’m addicted to it.”

The winner is in hot water with her hubby – for donating another £11m to total strangers, the Mirror reported.

Real life ‘Fairy Godmother’ Ms Connolly was given a ‘budget’ by husband Patrick because she is ‘addicted’ to helping others.

After holding a charity gala night which raised £100,000, she spoke of how giving to good causes ‘gives her a buzz’..

She said: “I get to change people’s lives every day if I want to. Helping other people and doing something to help other people will lift you.

“If you can give to others, whether it’s time or money, it’s really important, it gives you a buzz. It’s addictive. I’m addicted to it now.”

Frances, a former social worker and teacher, has splashed cash set aside for charities over the next 10 years in the space of six months.

Heartbroken by ‘all the poverty in the world’, the simple act of giving provides more pleasure than a sprawling £2m home and Aston Martin.

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On her latest giveaway, she says: “I’m at about 10 or 11 million paid directly to charity, but I don’t keep a tally in case Paddy finds it.

"He gave me an annual budget for good causes. We set one this year, I agreed to it. I’ve already spent all the money. It was to take us up to 2032.

“We might have to revise it.”

She joked: “People do ask, ‘How did you cope with that amount of money?’

“I say: ‘I never did. It wasn’t in the bank for two days’."

Frances has just given away £5,000 to buy clothes and toiletries for Ukrainian refugees.

And she agreed to fund school transport fees for a young asylum seeker after he was forced to move home.

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She explained: “If you can do good things for deserving people, why wouldn’t you just do it?

“It makes no sense to me to have that kind of money and not use it to do good in the world.”

In an earlier interview, Frances said: “We decided very early on that our daughters were not going to get tens of millions.

“They got more than anybody else, they got enough to buy a house, and live comfortably, but they will have to work for anything else they want.

“They will get more when we die. The rest we will be giving away to charity."

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