The man dubbed the world's luckiest after cheating death seven times and winning the lottery is now the happiest - after giving away all his cash. (Pictured: Frano Selak and Katarina)
Music teacher Frano Selak survived plane and train crashes and other disasters before winning 600,000 five years ago in Croatia.
But now Mr Selak, 81, says he’s never been happier after selling his luxury home on a private island, giving his fortune to family and friends and moving back to a modest home in his home town Petrinja.
He kept the last bit of cash back for a hip replacement operation so he can keep up with his 60-year-old wife Katarina and to build a shrine to the Virgin Mary to give thanks for his luck.
“All I need at my age is my Katarina. Money would not change anything. When she arrived I knew then that I really did have a charmed, blessed life,” he explained.
“I never thought I was lucky to survive all my brushes with death. I thought I was unlucky to be in them in the first place,” he added.
His first escape was in 1962 when he was on a train from Sarajevo to Dubrovnik which derailed and plunged into an icy river, 17 people died but he made it to the riverbank.
A year later, he was thrown out of a plane on his first and only flight when a door flew open. This time 19 died but he landed in a haystack.
In the following years he survived a bus he was on skidding into a river, his car catching fire on a motorway, his car catching fire in a filling station, and being knocked down by a bus.
Finally – he hopes – in 1996, he was driving in the mountains when his Skoda careered through a crash barrier and over a 300ft drop – but he leapt clear at the last minute.
Post published in: News