A lottery-winning 'Fairy Godmother' is enjoying life with a £1m jackpot – giving away money to her very own good causes.

Kim McCarthy landed the prize on Christmas Day, 2012 with husband Ian.

The generous couple immediately withdrew £100,000 and gave 30 family and friends cash gifts to buy dream holidays.

Kim, 56, now a grandmother for the first time to her 'Little Princess'

Thea, four, said: "We are not extravagant.

"The first thing we did was to book the holiday – neither of us had a passport or had ever been abroad.

"But we love to be able to help others."

Another £20,000 went on a Florida trip for sons Anthony, 33, and Jonathon, 27.

And they helped towards the cost of Anthony's wedding, before giving the newlyweds their house. Ex-car worker worker Ian, 55, said : "£1m is a lot of money. But we were older so the first thing we thought of was treating the kids, family and friends.

"We did not think of ourselves, which I am sure is the same for all parents who hit the jackpot.

"We were in our late 40s, so you can treat others, and that is the best thing about it. We don't have a big family with two sons, and we all worked at Nissan so we all had good jobs.

"We gave around two dozen friends four figure sums to go on holiday and the family five figure sums. Once we got that out of the way, we felt like a lot of pressure was taken off us."

He added: "It is life changing, no doubt about that. You miss work, the social aspect of it, and you miss seeing people every day.

"But is moving on to another stage of your life.”

The lucky couple, of Washington, Tyne and Wear both took early retirement.

Kim enjoys finding gifts and treats for friends and loved ones. "We buy them unusual presents, I go to London every year for the shops and stores,"she said.

"It is great to get people something that is hard to find, that they could not get anywhere else."

The couple also support the charities which receive help from the National Lottery.

Sunderland-born Kim, a former bingo hall supervisor, added: "We don't have to think 'can we get the time off work?' if we want to do something. It gives you so much freedom."

The North east is one of the luckiest places to play the lottery, with 257

lottery millionaires so far. Cleveland (TS) postcode is officially one of the luckiest in the country, coming third for big cash prize winners ranked per head of adult population.

And 109 millionaires have won in Newcastle since the game began 25 years ago, making it the fifth luckiest place to live in the country.

Source: Read Full Article