Couple's surprising plan for $6.7m lottery prize
A couple who won more than $6 million in the lottery have revealed the first thing they plan to spend their winnings on is urgent medical treatment for their cat.
Gavin and Sylvia Odolant-Smith, from southwest London, won more than $18,000 a month for the next 30 years on the National Lottery Set For Life game – the equivalent of $6.72m – after buying a lucky dip ticket.
But instead of spending the money on fast cars and big houses, the couple plan to use the windfall to start treatment on 13-year-old rescue cat Phangan, who has had her cheek removed after being diagnosed with face cancer.
They have booked Phangan in for a previously unaffordable CT scan and will learn the results this week.
Mr Odolant-Smith, 50, said Phangan "sleeps with us every night", along with the couple's other 13-year-old cat, Zia.
They had only been buying lottery tickets for six weeks before they struck lucky, and Mrs Odolant-Smith said she screamed so loud after discovering the win on October 24 that her husband "thought someone was breaking in”.
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"I picked up a rolling pin; I was going to go downstairs to see if we were being burgled,” he said.
"I was all blurry-eyed ... then I thought it must be a hoax – it's been hacked, it's not going to be true.”
Mrs Odolant-Smith said once the winnings were confirmed, she was “shaking”.
"Gavin couldn't control his emotions, I was trying to keep him calm but it was impossible, he was just jumping around all the time,” Mrs Odolant-Smith said.
"Everything has just been a rollercoaster, ever since.”
They will also be donating to charities including Wood Green Animal Shelter, where they adopted Phangan and Zia, a dog home in Wales called Tyr Capel Animal Sanctuary, ELHAP charity for disabled children in Woodford Bridge, northeast London, and Whitechapel Mission homeless charity.
Mrs Odolant-Smith said she decided to donate to Whitechapel Mission after seeing an advert for it on the morning of their win.
"This organisation was added to the list because the morning I discovered our win, a message flashed up on the train asking Londoners to be considerate of the homeless and I took this as a sign that now more than ever, Gavin and I can be,” she said.
Mrs Odolant-Smith added their long-term plan also involves setting up a sustainable interior design business in France, where she is originally from.
Yahoo! UK
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