I won £167 million jackpot on EuroMillions but donated nearly all of it to charity – I want to save the world
A EUROMILLIONS winner who scored the £167million jackpot has donated nearly all of the cash to charity.
The lucky punter bagged the second-largest ever amount in the French draw then pumped it into "saving the world".
The ticketholder, a French citizen known only as Guy, struck gold in December 2020 before revealing he planned to donate some of his €200m to hospitals.
But now, he has told how he has spent the rest of the money of setting up an environmental foundation called Anyama.
Guy told he wished to remain anonymous, but that his goal was to "save the planet".
He said: "I have transferred the majority of my winnings and will progressively give the near totality of it to the foundation."
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According to The Connexion, Guy said at the time of his win: "Seeing the happy people around me is the greatest reward.
"When the money falls from the sky, something must be done with it to help those who are not so lucky.
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"Otherwise, it doesn't make sense."
He also told how he only played EuroMillions during large jackpots "for one purpose" - "to devote most of the sum to the creation of this foundation".
Isabelle Cesari, of the Francaise des Jeux - the operator of France's National Lottery games - said: "We have never seen an initiative of this size, but there again, we have rarely seen such high winnings.
"Often, these things go hand-in-hand."
Anyama is named after an Ivory Coast city where Guy reportedly spent a lot of time as a child.
Its website states: "Because nature and man are one and their vulnerabilities force us to act, the Anyama endowment fund has made it its mission to protect the living."
Guy won the lottery with the numbers 6, 9, 13, 24 and 41, and lucky stars 3 and 12.
At the time, it was the highest-ever jackpot in France, but a year late one lucky winner scooped £184m.