Lotto Plus €500,000 winner gives her prize to homeless

A LOTTO winner promised to donate her winnings to homeless people when she picked up her prize.

Collecting her cheque for €500,000 yesterday morning, the Dublin woman said she was going to spend the day visiting homeless people.

“This win is for all of those people in Dublin who struggle to find a bed at night,” she said at Lotto headquarters.

She picked up her prize after Saturday night’s €500,000 Daily Million Plus draw.

“As a proud Dublin woman, it breaks my heart to see so many ordinary decent people become homeless in our city,” said the woman, who has chosen to remain anonymous.

“To celebrate my win, I will spend today visiting as many homeless people as I can to assist them financially,” she declared yesterday.

“In the long term, I will commit to a plan to help as many as I can.”

She bought her winning ticket at the Newstime shop in Palmerstown, Dublin.

“I was checking my Lotto numbers at 9.30pm on Saturday night when I remembered my Daily Million ticket. “I went absolutely mad. “I phoned all of my friends and we were all in the Shelbourne Hotel by 10pm sipping champagne,” she said.

News of the woman’s public pledge to help Dublin’s homeless people caused keen interest among charities.

Several charities contacted by this newspaper said they had not been approached by a Lotto winning benefactor yesterday.

Roughan MacNamara, a spokesman for Focus Ireland, said the charity helps 12,500 people nationwide each year who were homeless or who were at risk of losing their homes.

“If she did want to speak to any of the homeless organisations such as ourselves for advice on what would work, we’d be more than happy to facilitate that,” he said.