Chris And Colin Weir Lottery

When someone wins a massive amount of money they have plenty of ideas of how to spend their winnings. As well as helping to improve their own lives, many decide to use their new-found fortune to help other people. That’s exactly what Chris and Colin Weir did after winning the highest lottery jackpot by UK players when winning a £161m EuroMillions jackpot on July 12, 2011, They helped their favourite football team, a blind chess player and even tried to win their home country of Scotland independence from the United Kingdom.

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1. That’s exactly what Chris and Colin Weir did after winning the highest lottery jackpot by UK players when winning a £161m EuroMillions jackpot. On July 12, 2011, They helped their favourite football team, a blind chess player and even tried to win their home country of.
2. Colin & Christine Weir. Colin & Christine from Scotland became headline news when they banked one of the biggest jackpots in British history. The couple from Largs in Scotland banked a whopping £161 million from Euromillions, which catapulted them onto the Sunday Times Rich List, and made them two of Scotland's richest people.

When the couple from Largs near Glasgow won their fortune, they admit it was impossible for them to sleep all night. The fact that the Camelot claims line had closed for the evening didn’t help a great deal. Their £161,653,000 win was at the time the largest UK lottery win.

At the time of their win Colin was 64 and a retired TV cameraman and studio manager, while his wife, Chris, 55, was a psychiatric nurse. The couple had been married for 30 years and had two children.

Talking about their win, Colin said: “All our lives we have lived within our means and been comfortable. We appreciate that this money brings about a whole new life for us and our family. ‘We now have so many new opportunities to explore but we won’t rush it. For us, it will be a gradual change with choices to be made.”

Finding a new home is an inevitable task for multi-million lottery winners and the couple certainly enjoy buying houses. They began by purchasing a £1m home in Largs but then they decided to get something much larger.

They took just ten minutes to decide on splashing out £3.5m on a stately home in Troon, Scotland and all its contents came as part of the deal. They had previously turned down another stately home in the area because its five acres of grounds simply weren’t big enough for them. Their new home has 32 acres and had been built in 1909 for an Indian tea planter and at one time was an old folks’ home before being transformed into an “exclusive use” hotel.

The mansion features a minstrels’ gallery with a 36,000 piece crystal chandelier and a billiards room with Inglenook fireplace. The grounds include fountains, greenhouses and even a market garden.

The couple were both fans of Partick Thistle and decided to donate £750,000 to Partick Thistle FC. The money was used to establish a new Thistle Weir Youth Academy. That was something that Colin Weir was really keen on and said: “What impressed us was that it wouldn’t just be for elite players but would also encourage local youngsters into football for the sheer enjoyment and fun of it. Having seen the club’s determination to get this project off the ground, we decided that wanted to help them achieve their dream.”

Also helped by the Weirs was the Largs Thistle junior football club. They received a donation that helped them refurbish their ground. The National Sports Training Centre in Largs also received financial help from the pair.

The couple have sponsored teenager tennis player Ross Wilson allowing him to attend the same tennis academy in Barcelona that Andy Murray went to. Also receiving help were teenage racing driver Gregor Ramsay and blind chess player Stephen Hilton allowing him to compete in the World Braille Chess Championships

After seeing cancer-survivor Kieran Maxwell fall as he carried the Olympic torch in 2012, they bought him a new prosthetic leg.

In February 2013 the couple launched the Weir Charitable Trust with a £5m endowment. The Trust supports services/projects, run by Scottish-based community groups and small charities in sport, recreational facilities, animal welfare, health and culture.

Donations have been made to a wide variety of groups including Scottish Dalmatian Welfare, Borders Talking Newspapers, The Glasgow Children’s Home Scheme and Paisley Thread Mill Museum.

Chris And Colin Weir Lottery Take Five

2014 saw a national referendum held in Scotland on whether they wanted to leave the UK and become independent. The Weirs strongly supported the ‘Yes Scotland’ campaign and donated over £3m which meant nearly 80% of donations to the pro-independence campaign in the twelve months leading up to the vote came from the couple. Sadly for the couple the nation voted against independence from the UK.

Colin And Chris Weir Lottery Winners

The donations led to accusations that the Weirs had been duped into making their donations. In response to the criticism they had a letter published in the Scotsman. They confirmed they were “lifelong supporters of independence” and “it would be strange if we did not support the Yes Scotland campaign.” The couple declared that “no one bullied or targeted us.”