Inside the tragic story of the lottery winner who walked away with £7.6MILLION and donated a fortune to charity… before the tragedy struck

ONE of Britain’s most charitable lottery winners gave away almost her entire fortune before tragedy struck.

Barbara Wragg, 77, died of sepsis on Monday after an operation to remove gallstones.

Barbara Wragg, pictured with her husband Ray, died of sepsis on Monday after an operation to remove gallstones.Credit: SWNS: South West News Service
After their win, the couple snapped up a £415,000 house with a bay window, Barbara’s dream.Credit: Ross Parry – SWNS
Paying tribute Wednesday, Ray said his wife “didn’t deserve” to have her life cut short.Credit: SWNS: South West News Service

She and her husband Ray, 80, won a whopping £7.6 million in the National Lottery in 2000, but ended up giving away more than 70 per cent.

Paying tribute Wednesday, Ray said his wife “did not deserve” to have her life cut short.

The father-of-three said: “It is very sad that Barbara, who has given so much to the NHS, both by working for them and through charitable donations, did not deserve this.

“She was so kind and loving. She was naturally like that, even before she won the lottery.”

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The couple, from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, lived in a £10,000 council house and lived a modest life without living beyond their means or even leaving the country for holidays.

They played the lottery every week, picking five lines and randomly picking numbers from the license plates.

But their lives changed forever on January 22, 2000, when their numbers 7, 9, 10, 40, 41, and 44 landed them the jackpot.

Within weeks, the couple decided to hand over most of the fortune for the betterment of the local population.

Family, friends, children, hospitals and 17 charities benefited from his extraordinary generosity over two decades, MailOnline reported.

Their kindness led them to donate an MRI and bladder scan to two hospitals and they also bought 30 televisions so that each child at a local hospice could watch TV in bed.

And every Christmas for six years, they took 250 underprivileged children from an inner-city school for a day and footed the bill.

They even paid for 50 penniless war heroes to visit Italy for the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Monte Cassino in 2004.

At the time, Barbara said: “I look at it this way: £7.6m is too much for a couple in their 50s and 60s to spend.

“You feel a buzz. It’s like when you give someone a Christmas present and you see them open it and they think it’s absolutely wonderful.”

“Well, when we’ve given people money, we get it all the time.”

But the couple weren’t without a few luxuries and quickly moved into a £415,000 house with a bay window, Barbara’s dream.

The South Yorkshire natives also bought a Range Rover.

And they took their first trips abroad, Mediterranean and Caribbean cruises, having holidayed in Cornwall for 31 years in a row.

Although they never flew because Barbara was claustrophobic.

But in recent years, Barbara’s health declined rapidly, and Ray admitted that the family had been through “hell.”

Last week she was admitted to Northern General Hospital, Sheffield, for an operation to remove gallstones, but she never came out.

Tragic Barbara succumbed to sepsis surrounded by Ray and their children: Mark, 54, Shaun, 48, and Amanda, 44.

Reflecting on his life, Ray said, “Winning the lottery changed our lives but not our people.”

Within weeks, the couple decided to hand over most of the fortune for the betterment of the local population.Credit: SWNS: South West News Service
The couple were crazy about Sheffield UnitedCredit: SWNS: South West News Service
Family, friends, children, hospitals and 17 charities benefited from his extraordinary generosity over two decades.Credit: SWNS: South West News Service
Reflecting on his life, Ray said, “Winning the lottery changed our lives but not our people.”Credit: SWNS: South West News Service

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