Lotto winner sets up charity
Friday, May 05, 2006 posted 01:37 PM EDT
A Lotto winner has told how she is shunning the trappings of luxury to plough her winnings into a charity project in Africa.
Jenny Ringstead scooped £66,000 by matching five numbers plus the bonus ball in a Lotto draw last month.
But while most winners splash out on extravagant purchases, the 29-year-old care home manager plans to move from Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, to set up a charity project in Gambia.
The Gunjur Project will provide a community facility in an impoverished fishing village.
It will be open to local people for training and recreation but also offered to UK youth groups, to give British youngsters an experience of life in Africa.
Mrs Ringstead and husband Brendan, 38, were living with her parents on a £50-a-week budget before the Lotto win in order to save for the project.
They celebrated their luck with an Indian meal and a bottle of red wine but have otherwise refused to splash out.
Mrs Ringstead said: "We're not interested in fast cars or luxury holidays.
"We've been living on a budget since we came up with the project idea last year, and we have learned the value of money since then.
"We've done the spending thing in the past, we've had credit cards, and that just doesn't interest us any more.
"We're still living on £50 a week now, because we really want to make this work.
"Our first major purchase will be solar panels for the building."
Mrs Ringstead is taking a six-month sabbatical from work to start the project, and may consider staying longer.
Her mother and husband, both youth workers with Cheshire County Council, will also have their jobs held open for them.
The family had already set up a separate charity, Youth In Need In Gambia, before the win.
They are hoping to fill a 40ft container with supplies such as bicycles, sewing machines and educational materials, to send to Gambia in November.
They were inspired to help the Gambian people after visiting the country on holiday.
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