Benfleet lottery winner Joan Woodland has given away a huge slice of her £6.8 million jackpot to friends and family, it emerged yesterday.

Joan, 73, has spent little of her multi-million-pound fortune on herself - and she has divided the cash between each of her three children and six grandchildren.

She scooped the jackpot in August last year, but vowed to carry on life as normal saying the win would not change anything.

Mrs Woodland insisted she would continue to travel by bus and had no plans to move house.

The generous pensioner split up her winnings by giving £1.5million each to her son David, 44, and daughters Jennifer, 49, and Marilyn, 50.

She also handed her grandchildren, aged between 16 and 26, a tidy sum of £250,000 each.

Mrs Woodland who has not spent much money on herself and is still living off her pension, said yesterday: "It was arranged that we would split the money up. I gave away exactly £6million which left me with £800,000.

"At my age I don't need all that money. At least by giving it away, I shall see people enjoying it.

"They were all so staggered by the money that they have just invested it for the time being. They had some of the interest to spend at Christmas but I don't know what they are planning to do with the money."

She has also made plans to distribute some of her winnings to various charities in the area. The lucky gran added: "The rest of the money is invested to go to charity. None of them have had any money yet but I am hoping to do it as soon as possible."

Mrs Woodland, who has lived at her home near the High Road since 1956, used to teach maths at South Benfleet Junior School.

Her numbers were chosen from a combination of her family's birthdays and her wedding date.

She bought her ticket from Alldays convenience store in Benfleet High Road.

Generous gran - Joan has given £6 million to her family, leaving her with £800,000

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