Spend, spend, spend Viv Nicholson has dementia

Viv Nicholson, 78, Britain’s most famous pools winner, has dementia. Nicholson, who pledged to ‘’spend, spend, spend’ after winning £152,319 in 1961, can no longer remember her famous catch phrase and lavish lifestyle.

Viv Nicholson and her husband Keith hit the jackpot in 1961, and promptly blew it all on expensive clothes, cars and houses.

The football betting pool scoop, in which gamblers predict the results of football games across a season, would be worth a hefty £5million in today’s money.

Tragically, Keith Nicholson died at the wheel of his Jaguar in 1965, which led to his wife being declared bankrupt when the tax authorities reclaimed most of the newly-won wealth.

Nicholson has had a colourful life, with many trials and tribulations. She has battled with alcohol and depression, been married four times and survived poverty.

Viv’s son Howard told UK newspaper The Mirror that the condition has robbed his mother of her ‘sparky personality’.

He said: ‘I ask what her catchphrase was and she can’t remember. When I tell her, she smiles as if she recognises it – but I don’t know if she does.’

Ms Nicholson was struck down by a stroke three years ago, which her son said caused the dementia.

Howard is now raising money to fight dementia and planning to undertake a sponsored walk in China this October.

He said: ‘If she could, Mum would urge everyone to spend, spend, spend – this time to fight dementia.’