Fingers crossed for £7m winner

Oct 5 2008 by Ken Oxley, Sunday Sun

I’D hate it if my 18-year-old son scooped millions on the Lottery.

For most teenagers, being lumbered with a fortune at so young an age would prove a recipe for disaster.

In fact, I can’t think of anything more likely to lead them into mischief, stifle their ambition and generally screw up their life than an endless supply of readies.

I wish nothing but good luck to Ianthe Fullagar, the 18-year-old from Cumbria who won £7 million this week.

She seems pretty level- headed, having vowed to bank the money and go ahead with plans to study for a law degree.

Her only immediate “extravagance”, she says, will be to splash out on a new Ford Ka.

But I wonder whether, in time, even Ianthe will find the burden of a bulging bank balance too much of a temptation.

When the going gets tough — as it inevitably will in her second or third year at university — might she not be inclined to abandon her ambitions and take the easy way out?

Money can be a curse as well as a blessing. I hope, for Ianthe’s sake, it turns out to be the latter.