Charities receive early Crist-mas present from lotto winner

CTV Calgary: Lotto winner shares windfall A local man won $40M in the lottery and made a big donation to the cancer centre in Calgary on Tuesday. Chris Epp has the latest.

The Calgary man who pledged to donate his $40M LOTTO MAX jackpot is making headlines across North America for his generosity.

Tom Crist won the money in the May 3^rd draw and says he will give it all away to charity.

Crist wasn’t even sure he won as he buys his tickets by subscription and says he just renews it and then files it away.

“I guess I’ve been fortunate enough through my career, you know that I had with the company I was with, to be fortunate enough to have a good living and be able to remain having a good living and look after my kids so I really don’t need the money,” said Crist in a phone interview with CTV Calgary.

Crist claimed the prize on Monday and was on the golf course in Palm Springs when he got the call that he won back in the spring.

He lost his wife to cancer a couple of years ago and says he is putting the money into a family foundation to distribute the funds among several charities.

“I just wanted to kind of slide under the radar and put it into my family trust and move on and my charities benefit for years to come,” said Crist.

Crist says he knew from the minute that he heard he had won that he would donate it all to charity.

“From day one. I never, ever second guessed what I was going to do with that money. Never.”

Crist says he only told his children on Monday and says he just wanted to do something good with the winnings.

He made his first big donation on Tuesday to the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary and wrote out a cheque for $1.2M.

His friends say they are not surprised to hear he would give it all away.

"I was shocked when I heard the news but I was not suprised when I found out what he was going to do with the funds, he's probably the most generous man I've met in my whole career and I couldn't have been happier for him and his family but I'm not surprised by what he's doing with the money, he's volunteered for years and years and will continue to volunteer for years and years, he's a good guy," said Darren Buium, a former co-worker.

Crist's story has caught the attention of news outlets across North America and the prize is the largest ever won in Calgary.