Cue applause: Expat lottery winner rescues Scotland’s pool team
An expat pool player who won the lottery is sending the Scotland team to the World Championships.
Kenny Donald, who landed £10 million in the Canadian lottery two years ago, donated £75,000 to fund a squad of 56 players’ trip to the contest in Albi, France.
The former upholsterer, originally from Chapelhall in Lanarkshire, made the generous offer while visiting mates in Scotland last October. Now Scots pool players in several different categories are taking part in the championships this week. Donald, 52, who resides in Ottawa, said: “The great thing about winning the lottery is you can make people’s dreams come true.
“They say money can’t buy happiness but seeing the look on the players’ faces when they discovered they could all go to France was priceless.
“They include ladies, men, seniors and under-18s and really keen players in wheelchairs who all want a chance to prove themselves.”
Donald represented the Scottish team before emigrating but cannot join team-mates in France as he is taking part in the US Open Pool Championship in Atlantic City this week.
Recalling his lottery windfall, Donald initially thought he had landed only $15,000 and was stunned when, after double-checking his numbers, realised he had matched all seven.
Scotland Pool Association president Ross McInnes said he wept tears of joy when Donald told him he would pick up the bill for the team.
“I cried thinking how much it would mean to the many who would struggle to attend. The weight of fundraising disappeared in seconds. Now we have to do Kenny proud by winning.”
The World Championships run until Saturday.
Donald revealed his rocky start to life when his birth parents were forced to give him up for adoption in Canada. “I returned to Scotland as a toddler with my adoptive parents and spent the next 40 years in Chapelhall until returning to Canada to open an upholstery business.”
Winning the lottery meant moving from a rented basement flat to a 39-acre mansion with stables but he has retained his day job despite his new-found wealth.
“I was determined to keep my upholstery business going,” he said, “because you need a direction to go in the morning. I am happy to put in 70 hours a week upholstering and have nine on the workforce.”
He gave his two sons in Scotland and daughter in Northern Ireland £250,000 to buy homes but says they will have to keep working.
“The best thing you can teach your children is to work for a living because it keeps you grounded,” he said. “If it disappeared tomorrow and I went back to the basement it would not worry me too much.”
Donald spent 11 years tracking down his birth mum and dad after tracing them through an adoption agency.
“I found my mum in Canada and she was married with three more children but kept me secret from her family. I flew over to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to meet her.
“I then traced my dad who was living in St John’s, Newfoundland, remarried with children. So I went from having one adoptive sister to eight brothers and sisters.”