Canada man Tom Crist to give away entire $42m lottery win to charity

A MAN who won $40 million in the lottery says he is giving all the money away to charity.

Calgary man Tom Crist won the $C40 million ($US38 million) jackpot in May and will give away every dollar.

"The money is all going to charity,” he told the Calgary Sun. "I am happy I won because I can donate a lot of money to charity. Personally the money is going to do zero for me.”

Mr Crist plans to donate the money through a family foundation he launched to help fight cancer after his wife Jan died of the disease two years ago.

The generous winner, who recently retired, says he doesn't need the money.

"I just retired at the end of September so I was fortunate enough in my career to set myself up and my kids anyway, and there was no doubt in my mind where that money was going to go, it was going to go to charity,” he told the National Post.

Rather than a traditional lotto ticket, Mr Crist had an annual subscription to Canada"s lottery, which automatically enters numbers for subscribers and lets them know if they've won.

He got the call notifying him of his win while away on a golf holiday.

"I didn"t know what to think. I was speechless,” he said.

In addition to giving away the massive windfall, Mr Crist plans to avoid future media attention, even wearing sunglasses and a cap to shield his appearance in handout photos.