And finally…£1.5m Scottish estate to be raffled

A Scottish country estate on the isle of Arran worth £1.5 million is to be raffled-off with tickets currently on sale for £55 each.

The Balmichael Centre will be given to the lucky winner and all profits will go to humanitarian organisation Boots on the Ground, which helps areas hit by natural disasters.

Not only will the winner get a two-bedroom cottage worth over £520,000, but the property also plays host to a 42-seat cinema, go karts, duck ponds, a synthetic ice rink and more.

There is no outstanding debt to pay and there are no conditions that the winner will have to accept on taking over the property.

The new owner can keep the island and run the business, sell it and keep the cash, use it as a holiday home, do Airbnb-style rentals or move in and start a brand new life.

The raffle started on October 1 and thousands of hopefuls have already bought tickets.

Single raffle tickets can be bought on the Island Raffle website for £55 each.

Entrants can buy as many tickets as they like – 27,300 need to be sold just for the owner James Clark to break even.

Mr Clark decided to go ahead with the raffle after hearing about an Australian family who were giving away their Micronesian property in the same way.

The former US army medic has devoted much of his life to helping people in crisis-hit areas.

He explained: “It sounded too good to be true but then we looked into it and they really did it. Some young guy won the whole place. He would never have been able to afford a place like that.

“After talking to lawyers and government officials, we decided to go for it,” he said.

“It’s a real out of the box way to do things, and when it succeeds, we’ll be changing not just the winner’s life but those who are less fortunate.

“We could have just sold it the traditional route or even raffled it off as a for profit venture, but we want to do something more meaningful than that. It’s pretty exciting.”

A further cash prize of £7,714 is going on top of the grand prize along with social media raffles that you can enter free of charge.

The Grand Prize Raffle draw will be held on June 1 2017 or earlier if all the tickets are sold before this date.