Man who won $200+ million in European lottery is using it to preserve and revitalize Earth

An anonymous lottery winner is donating nearly all of his Euromillions winnings to save the planet.
Imagine winning enough money in the lottery to be able to do pretty much anything you want. Travel the world in luxury. Buy multiple mansions and expensive cars. Hire a gourmet chef to prepare all of your meals. Yachts seem particularly popular among the uber-wealthy. With more than $200 million, there are few material wishes you couldn't fulfill.
But what if your biggest, truest wish was to save the planet from destruction?
An anonymous Frenchman who won 200 million euros (the U.S. equivalent of approximately $218 million) in the Euromillions lottery in 2020 has chosen to use his winnings to preserve and revitalize Earth. The man, nicknamed "Guy" by French lottery group Françaises des Jeux (FDJ), has not identified himself publicly, but has created a foundation called Anyama, named after an Ivory Coast city, for the purpose of protecting the planet. He shared an open letter on the Anyama website explaining why he's using his windfall this way.
“The Anyama endowment fund is the result of an imperious desire to act for nature and human beings that I have had for years," he wrote (translated from French). "Above all, it is the expression of a conviction that I want to share with as many people as possible: giving makes people happy, and constitutes a tremendous lever for transforming indignation into concrete and useful actions."
He explained how seeing truckloads of trees cut from the forests of Burkina Faso passing through the Ivory Coast (where he had spent several years as a child, according to Le Parisien) impacted him. He wrote that he has always only entered lotteries with "important jackpots," specifically for the purpose of creating a charitable foundation.
"My dream has never been to acquire boats, castles or other sports cars," he wrote, "it is to be useful and to give meaning to this money, with maximum positive impact. So that's what I'm doing today by creating Anyama, which acts for the benefit of the common good of all, with one watchword: protect the living. This is for me the urgency of our time and most certainly of the many years to come, in the interest of future generations."
The focus of action for the foundation revolves around the conservation of forests and revitalization of biodiversity, but also around support for human caregivers as well.
"Family caregivers are an essential link in our society," the Anyama website reads. "Accompanying them also means protecting the living in each of us. People in a situation of dependency linked to age, illness or disability are a significant burden for caregivers. Anyama's 'Caregivers' program will support projects aimed at supporting, training, relieving or welcoming family carers."
Guy sees man and nature as one whose vulnerabilities overlap.
"Man, for years, believed he could exploit nature without taking into account his own membership in this ecosystem, freeing himself from the rules that guarantee its balance," he wrote. "This observation obliges us to 'pay attention to others,' to act to protect and regenerate."
According to Le Figaro, Guy told French newspaper Le Parisien that he has already given most of his winnings to the foundation, and that he would "progressively give almost all" of the money to it. He appears to have no desire for notoriety or recognition, saying he plans to "continue to live peacefully, in the most total discretion."
FDJ told Agence France-Presse that it is not uncommon for winners to be generous with their lottery money, but the proportion Guy is donating to philanthropy is a "great first."
What a refreshing approach to becoming a multimillionaire: Genuine generosity and humility, and a desire to use wealth for the betterment of humanity and our home. Congratulations, Guy. It sounds like you deserved this win.
- 5 reasons you should stop spending money only on yourself right ... ›
- A woman threw out a $1 million lottery ticket. These honest store ... ›
- EU looks to cut pesticide use in half - Upworthy ›
- Virginia man's $600 lottery win turned out to be $1 million - Upworthy ›
- People in a tiny Belgium town win $956,000 each from lottery - Upworthy ›
- Couple creates luxury car commercial for 1996 Honda Accord - Upworthy ›
- Man describes the strange truth part about winning the lottery - Upworthy ›






A woman is getting angry at her coworker.via
A man with tape over his mouth.via
A husband is angry with his wife. via 
a man sitting at a desk with his head on his arms Photo by
Can a warm cup of tea help you sleep better? If you believe it, then yes. Photo by 
Three women sit on a blanket in the park. 
Two women engaging in a pleasant conversation inside a coffee shop
Two men engaging in a peaceful disagreement.
Resurfaced video of French skier's groin incident has people giving the announcer a gold medal
"The boys took a beating on that one."
Downhill skiing is a sport rife with injuries, but not usually this kind.
A good commentator can make all the difference when watching sports, even when an event goes smoothly. But it's when something goes wrong that great announcers rise to the top. There's no better example of a great announcer in a surprise moment than when French skier Yannick Bertrand took a gate to the groin in a 2007 super-G race.
Competitive skiers fly down runs at incredible speeds, often exceeding 60 mph. Hitting something hard at that speed would definitely hurt, but hitting something hard with a particularly sensitive part of your body would be excruciating. So when Bertrand slammed right into a gate family-jewels-first, his high-pitched scream was unsurprising. What was surprising was the perfect commentary that immediately followed.
This is a clip you really just have to see and hear to fully appreciate:
- YouTube youtu.be
It's unclear who the announcer is, even after multiple Google inquiries, which is unfortunate because that gentleman deserves a medal. The commentary gets better with each repeated viewing, with highlights like:
"The gate the groin for Yannick Bertrand, and you could hear it. And if you're a man, you could feel it."
"Oh, the Frenchman. Oh-ho, monsieurrrrrr."
"The boys took a beating on that one."
"That guy needs a hug."
"Those are the moments that change your life if you're a man, I tell you what."
"When you crash through a gate, when you do it at high rate of speed, it's gonna hurt and it's going to leave a mark in most cases. And in this particular case, not the area where you want to leave a mark."
Imagine watching a man take a hit to the privates at 60 mph and having to make impromptu commentary straddling the line between professionalism and acknowledging the universal reality of what just happened. There are certain things you can't say on network television that you might feel compelled to say. There's a visceral element to this scenario that could easily be taken too far in the commentary, and the inherent humor element could be seen as insensitive and offensive if not handled just right.
The announcer nailed it. 10/10. No notes.
The clip frequently resurfaces during the Winter Olympic Games, though the incident didn't happen during an Olympic event. Yannick Bertrand was competing at the FIS World Cup super-G race in Kvitfjell, Norway in 2007, when the unfortunate accident occurred. Bertrand had competed at the Turin Olympics the year before, however, coming in 24th in the downhill and super-G events.
As painful as the gate to the groin clearly as, Bertrand did not appear to suffer any damage that kept him from the sport. In fact, he continued competing in international downhill and super-G races until 2014.
According to a 2018 study, Alpine skiing is a notoriously dangerous sport with a reported injury rate of 36.7 per 100 World Cup athletes per season. Of course, it's the knees and not the coin purse that are the most common casualty of ski racing, which we saw clearly in U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn's harrowing experiences at the 2026 Olympics. Vonn was competing with a torn ACL and ended up being helicoptered off of the mountain after an ugly crash that did additional damage to her legs, requiring multiple surgeries (though what caused the crash was reportedly unrelated to her ACL tear). Still, she says she has no regrets.
As Bertrand's return to the slopes shows, the risk of injury doesn't stop those who live for the thrill of victory, even when the agony of defeat hits them right in the rocks.