Allen and Violet Large

Allen and Violet Large, a retired couple in Lower Truro, Nova Scotia, held the winning ticket in the Lotto 6/49 draw of 14 July 2010 and collected C$11.25 million. Allen, then 75, had spent about 30 years as a welder and steelworker in Ontario before the couple retired to Nova Scotia; Violet, born 27 April 1932, had worked for cosmetics and chocolate companies and had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer months before the win. The Globe and Mail reported they kept roughly 2 per cent as an emergency fund and gave the rest away, first to family and then to churches, fire departments, cemeteries, the Canadian Red Cross, the Colchester Regional Hospital Foundation, Old Barns United Church and the Truro and Halifax hospitals where Violet was treated. The Associated Press reported in November 2010 that most of the money was already distributed, and that the couple had decided to give it away a week before collecting the cheque. "We haven't bought one thing," Violet said. "That's it, because this is nothing that we need." In June 2011 the Maritime Philanthropy Awards named them individual philanthropists of the year.

Violet Large died on 16 July 2011 at a hospital in Truro, aged 79, after her cancer returned. An October 2011 Globe and Mail report found Allen still living in Lower Truro and being hounded by fraudsters who used the couple's names in international lottery scam emails, a scam CBC reported was still circulating in 2013; no verified later update on Allen was found as of 2026.