Biggest lottery winner dies

08/12/2010 11:41:59

Lottery Draws One of the winners of the biggest ever lottery jackpot in New Zealand, who used her win to help the needy, has died at 74. The biggest lottery winner dies at home after making headlines last year for winning almost $40 million on the New Zealand Lottery. Margaret Heaney had no use for lots of belongings and so used her good fortune to help others and gave much of her lottery win away since she won last year. The lucky lady had been battling ill-health even before her win, contracting pneumonia just a couple of months before her numbers came up.

We covered the story at the time on our world lottery news pages, as we don’t see many winners of that age, and of course it was new Zealand’s biggest lottery win at $36.9 million. The win was shared with her children and Mrs Heaney then went on to use her share for donations, the syndicate was only originally created so that Mrs Heaney could buy lottery tickets, as she was struggling with the cost after the death of her husband, she was glad she did after netting this massive lottery win.

Since yesterday, people have been paying tribute to Mrs Heaney and saying what a wonderful and generous person she was. Her generosity made the lives on plenty, much better and all from a single lottery win! A tribute page has been set up for the lottery winner, who’s funeral will be at the end of the week.