Lotto winners make $1m donation

Two of Masterton's Lotto multi-millionaires have followed through on their promise to make a substantial donation to the Wairarapa District Health Board.

Fiona Wilton, 41, and her mother, Margaret Heaney, 72, have each handed over $500,000 from the record $36.9 million Big Wednesday win they shared in June with Fiona's sister Siobhan and her niece Alicia, 19.

Half the money is to go the ambulance service, with the rest to be spent on nursing equipment.

As the donation was confirmed by the DHB yesterday, Ms Wilton was hard at work doing home help as a nurse for the board.

"We said right from the outset that this windfall was not going to change us," she told the Dominion Post.

"I love my work and none of us have stopped what we were doing. It just means that we can now help our communities and support charities for the benefit of everybody."

Meanwhile, the family is continuing to be inundated with requests from people wanting financial help.

Ms Wilton said the million-dollar donation to the hospital was a way of making sure everyone benefited.

Although the Wairarapa donation was the first, more charities are likely to benefit from the family's generosity, including Ronald McDonald House.

- NZPA