EITHER you sensibly put your big lottery win in a high-interest bank account or you blow it on fast cars, beautiful female chauffeurs, round-the-world trips and the races.
Doug Wood decided on the latter when he won £2.5 million in the National Lottery eight years ago. Once he had exhausted his bank account, and himself, he did what any sensible person would have done: he died a happy man.
Mr Wood was found in bed yesterday by a neighbour barely a month after he disclosed that he was down to his last £80,000.
The rest had been spent, variously, on a Mediterranean cruise for himself and 17 friends; trips to Alaska, Dominica, South Africa and America; four new properties, including a bungalow for himself; £225,000 of racing bets; and two new cars, complete with female drivers. He also donated a large chunk of his windfall to charity.
When the money began to run out, Mr Wood, who was from Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, acknowledged that he was “going to have to start acting my age” — 67 this year. “It just means I’ll have to pull in my belt and go back to being an old-age pensioner,” he said last month.
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A former unemployed shopworker who lived on £44 a week, Mr Wood was catapulted into a life of previously unimaginable wealth in September 1995. From then on his philosophy of life was simple: if he had it, he was going to spend it.
“I saw him at teatime and he said he wasn’t feeling that well,” a neighbour said yesterday. “But he seemed quite happy. He never let the lottery win go to his head. He made sure he enjoyed himself but he was always down to earth.”
Mr Wood said in June: “I have had the time of my life. I have loved spending every penny. I have no regrets.”