Teacher who won Who Wants To Be A Millionaire has given most of it away

A teacher who became the first winner of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? in more than a decade last year has split the vast majority of it between his family.

Donald Fear, 58, decided to retired early, buy a motorhome and get new patio doors fitted after taking home the £1 million prize in September.

But besides that and some loose plans to travel the world once the pandemic subsides, he says the win has not changed his life.

Instead the grandfather-of-three, whose modest demeanour while cruising effortlessly to the top prize endeared him to viewers, has handed out £700,000 to relatives.

He still lives at the same home in Telford, Shropshire, and drives a Nissan Juke, telling of the arrival of two new grandsons Oliver and Dylan last month as his most ‘exciting’ recent memory.

The 58-year-old said: ‘It was lovely and my wife was able to support our youngest daughter, Isabelle – Dylan’s mum – for a time afterwards.’

Don was the ITV show’s first jackpot winner since Ingram Wilcox in 2006, and the first ever to use only one lifeline in the process.

Asked which pirate died in battle in 1718 off the coast of what is now North Carolina, he correctly answered Blackbeard.

After the show aired, Don initially stayed on as head of history and politics at Haberdashers’ Adams’ Grammar School in Newport, Shropshire, to say his farewells and see it through the second lockdown until December.

He said: ‘That was my hardest ever term, with the masks, social distancing and Zoom lessons.’

Asked what the future held, he added: ‘I would love to do a safari holiday, go to America and go whale watching and to Australia to watch cricket.’

Don is also working to encourage people to take up table tennis and use his chairmanship of the local club, Lilleshall Table Tennis Centre, to help the community.

He continued: ‘We have had interest from TTE [Table Tennis England] and the Vetts Society to make Lilleshall their premier venue for regular weekend tournaments.

‘And our vice president Rod Lewis has been in touch with his old table tennis friends in Asia.

‘They are coming to visit Lilleshall with a view to holding residential training camps with the likes of the Chinese national team.

‘Initially our main focus will be on the elderly and disabled with bat and chat and table tennis therapy using the latest specialised tables of which Rod has already purchased three.

‘We have custom designed tables for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and cerebral palsy.’

The club is eager for new members of all ages and standards, Don added.

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