hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: theresa may dismisses calls for a second eu referendum, and insists she won't make compromises on her brexit chequers plan that aren't in the national interest. the former prime minister, gordon brown, has said the "soul" of the labour party is at stake in the dispute about the party's attitude tojews. prison corruption — the number of prison staff caught smuggling drugs, weapons and mobile phones into jails is rising steeply. now — does a lot of money really make us happy? and is, as the saying goes, the real pleasure in giving? mike thomson meets five lottery winners from around the world — in winning it big. with prizes now bigger than ever, who hasn't dreamed of winning the lottery, and dwelled on what you'd do with all that money? but would winning it big really make us happier? i'm mike thomson, and i'm on a trip

to meetjackpot winners around the world in search of an answer. a once—penniless ghanaian who is now becoming a movie mogul. a transgender ex—taxi driver who has transformed her life. a former canadian beauty queen who is giving it all away. i've come to hull, britain's city of culture last year, to meet one of the country's most colourful and controversial lottery winners. my first task is going to be to get a taxi into town. this looks a possible. hi there, is it mike

thomson from the bbc? yes, it is. is that multimillionaire lottery winner melissa ede? it certainly is. tell you what, mike, jump in. i'm assuming that you being a bit of a local celebrity now, you could well be spotted in the open top? not many blonde—haired people driving around in an open top car on a day like this. once i'd scratched it, once i'd realised, i had to check it and keep checking it. in december last year, melissa ede bought a scratchcard and got the best christmas present of her life. within three days, my bank balance went from about £1 odd, to £4 million.

melissa, a 57—year—old transgender woman, had struggled to make ends meet working night shifts as a taxi driver. life was hard, wasn't it? life was very, very difficult, yeah. just to live day by day. some days, couldn't even afford to eat. it was a bowl of cereal, just to get by that day. could we perhaps go to where you used to work? definitely, let's go and have a look and let's go see some of my old friends. where from? and where are you going to? ok, no problem, then. thank you. so this is it. so here it is. carmen was one of melissa's closest colleagues at work. how are you doing?

really good. what have you been doing? all sorts. i haven't seen you for a bit. i've been lying low. how come? just have, so much to do. you've got lots to tell me, then. shall we go in there? it went crazy. it did, yeah. everyone... it was everywhere. yeah, i know. have you spent the lot, then? no. haven't you ? i've invested £3 million. i've invested £3 million, i'm paying the house off cash, and then i'm treating some of my close friends as well. and family. and we've still got enough to have some good holidays and that as well. so i'm not as crazy as people thought i was. you know what you're doing, then. i've proved that it can happen to anybody. because if i was ten minutes later

somebody else might have had that scratchcard. after her win, melissa thought she'd reached the end of her struggles. she'd been living in a rundown rented bedroom. when the house of her dreams came up for sale, melissa made a cash offer, and it was accepted. then the sale fell through. i'm out there, i'm in the public eye. a lot of people don't agree with what i do. i don't know, i really, really don't know. everybody thinks that having money solves everything. i'm living proof, it doesn't. even though you've got the money, you can't have everything you want. when the light falls and the darkness draws in, melissa can be found in search of the supernatural. bad spirits, can you please show your presence? can you make one of the lights flash? are there any spirits in this room

that would like to speak to anybody in this room? please, can you give us a sign? melissa met herfiancee rachel in a ghost hunting session. it is one of her more unconventional hobbies. make a noise. boo! melissa, i knew you were going to do that! move the ball on the table. tap somebody on the shoulder. for some, melissa's belief in ghosts might make her appear gullible, but she says she is well aware there are some downsides to winning a fortune. one of the problems with winning such a vast amount of money is, who do you trust in your life any more? who is there because they want to be? or who is there because you are now a millionaire? it wasn't me who popped the question, it was rachel, rachel popped the question, and it was just before,

luckily for her, just before the lottery win. it was only a matter of a few days. after 15 years working nights as a taxi driver, melissa is used to getting by on very little sleep. even though she spent all night ghost hunting, that won't stop melissa going clubbing later. and as you can see... there it is. hello, what have you got for me to wear my big night out tonight, then? a nice prom dress in the window. i don't think i can go in a prom dress, do you? pink to make the boys wink. let's have a look. yes, let's see. what do you think? it's surprising what you can find. and i do know, from past

experiences, even people who are into designer labels, you can find them in charity shops as well. why pay full whack for something? no, you can get it for cut—price, and you're also helping out a charity. i am being very, very careful with my money because i think in life, when you haven't had something, you learn to value things in life. after she won the lottery, melissa decided she needed a makeover. years of taking hormones and a violent attack when she worked in the taxi business have caused serious damage to her teeth. now she can finally afford to fix them. i'm going to have that hollywood smile. so, that's something i really, really can't wait for. before winning the lottery, melissa would drive customers around

hull on a saturday night. now she's the customer. money doesn't bring happiness, but it can certainly make you enjoy life more. lottery fever has been transforming lives in africa, too. here, in the steamy bush, around an hour's drive from ghana's second city, it has turned once penniless movie writer into a veritable movie mogul. action! last year, 25—year—old kwame took a gamble on his football knowledge.

he placed a bet on the scores of 15 matches being played around the world. get them all right, and he would be in the money. kwame sat back and waited for news of the scores to come in. action! kwame had won nearly a million ghanaian cedis, the equivalent of more than $200,000 us. kwame soon began putting his winnings to good use, ploughing it into music and films. action! he's yet to finish making his action movie but has already made a trailer for it. kwame‘s life before winning

the lottery was very far away from the hollywood dream. ghana's economy is growing, but much of this wealth goes to a minority of the population, and inequality between the rich and the poor is greater than ever. for many people in ghana, winning the lottery is their only hope of making it out of poverty. we have turned off the road and we are now in a slum area where you can smell the open sewers. there are enormous holes in the road. i'm getting the impression that this must be close to where kwame

spent most of his life. in this impoverished slum, few would risk spending the little they have on lottery tickets. only a true optimist would take that gamble. rap music. how times have changed. back in his slum days, kwame lived in a makeshift home with no windows. not bad, is it? kwame, you have gone up

in the world, haven't you? kwame‘s parents advise him about how to spend his new—found wealth. kwame realised that he needed help from his parents so he asked them to authorise any large cheques he might want to write. kwame‘s big win came

on his sister lydia's birthday. but since kwame‘s win, the family has been pestered for money, particularly by some relatives. kwame‘s parents say they want their son to use his money

to secure his own future, and kwame has some very big ambitions. my investigation into money and happiness takes me now to the french—speaking province of quebec in canada. this is the ticket i win with, and this is the photo. it's proof i'm the winner. 57—year—old lottery winner rachel lapierre lives in the town of saint—jerome near montreal. rachael won it big in 2013, but chose payments for life instead. every week, she gets cad$i,000.

that's around us$800. rachel, a former miss quebec, has tasted riches before. une, deux, trois. razee, razee, razee! go! but having won a fortune that most people can only dream of, she is now giving it all away. you know, money is money. when you get born, you don't have anything. you arrive in life, and when you go, you're going with nothing, you know? so, but you're going with your memories, wou're going with what you did here in life. i give that to her last week. rachel uses her lottery win

to fund her own charity. running this has left her with less money than she had before. but rachel believes that by living her dream, she's richer than ever. everybody brings something here to give it back to somebody. they sign it here, their names, so you can see all of them. oh, the children have bought a bike for another child! yeah! we have a lot of refugee families, you know, from the war. so they arrive and they don't have any toys, they don't have bikes. we just try to promote good deeds. so a good deed, it can be so many things. it can be a bike today, it can be food, it can be transport to go to the hospital.

it can be just listening to somebody on the phone because they're so lonely. so it can be so many things. you're welcome, you're welcome. ok, let's go. phone rings. bonjour. woman: i really need help right now. what kind of help? i'm alone with my four kids and i've just lost myjob. what we're going to do, if you agree, we're gonna bring you a grocery today. oh, thank you so much! thank you! you've made my day. thank you very, you very, very, very much! this pleasant—looking neighbourhood seems an unlikely place to find anyone needing help from rachel's charity. butjust around the corner, a man is living in what used

to be his garage before his house burnt down. hello, miley! so, how you feel today? not bad. a little bit — comme ci, comme ca. comme ci, comme ca. yeah, a little better than most days. harvey was a successful businessman, but then everything changed. soon after his company went bust, he became seriously ill and a fire destroyed his home. it was diabetes, bad circulation. i lost a kidney and my kidneys shutdown. before rachel found harvey, he was struggling to survive the freezing canadian winter in this makeshift cabin, and hadn't had a hot shower for months. and i have a good news today.

what? this week, two persons are going to come to do the tiles in the bathroom. i appreciate it a lot, rachel. i'm happy. thank you. merci. my pleasure, my pleasure. you lose faith in people after a while, you don't believe any more. all of a sudden, rachel shows up at my door and i still didn't believe because i'd never asked anybody for anything, ever. i never had to, you know? i was blown away, i gotta tell you. i really was. i didn't show it because i'm not that type of person, but i was... yeah. you never cross someone's path for nothing. i believe that. i believe that too. did you regularly enter the lottery?

no, never. and that day, something... i had that feeling i have to buy a ticket because i was already helping people a little bit, but i was working, i had my kids. so i said if i win, this means it's gonna be for me like a salary. la princesse que j‘ai trouve. wow! honestly, i was not surprised to win. in my mind, i was thinking, i have to do le book humanitaire, i was sure about that. so i was just coming like, to confirm, "0k, you win, you were right." rachel grew up in a poor neighbourhood of montreal, but she was soon to leave that behind. what's all this?

some of these mementos, these incredible photographs you've got, presumably all to do with your win as miss quebec? yeah, yeah. i win in 1982 and i was sure i couldn't be a miss quebec. it's made me realise everything is possible. after being crowned miss quebec, rachel didn't rest on her laurels. she went on to start a successful modelling agency and her wealth began to grow. long before rachel won the lottery, she discovered that money alone would not bring her happiness, so she swapped her luxury lifestyle for the dedicated down—to—earth world of an emergency nurse. hi, louis! bonjour. i think happiness coming from the heart, ok? so it's nice to have a new car, a new home, a new everything. you knew, it can be really fun.

but with the time i just realise maybe human need to give to be balanced. i'd imagine that a do—gooding lottery winner like rachel might be a little too saccharine and prone to patronise those she helps. bonjour, mama. yet they seem to generally adore her, and i admit to being a bit of a fan myself. i always assumed that happiness forjackpot winners lies in suddenly having mountains of money to do what you like, when you like, where you like. action! freedom from the financial constraints that bind everyone else. but having met all these people around the world who've won it big, i'm no longer so sure. the thrill of new—found riches seems to fade fairly quickly.

international research appears to back this up. academics have found absolutely no evidence that a year after winning those who hit the jackpot are any happier than the rest of us. the secret, it seems to me, is to share what you have and help others to live their dreams too. that way, everyone‘s a winner. temperatures have been climbing, pretty warm out there but in the sunshine fortunes has been mixed, no shortage of sunshine of the sky in london, this from southwark but a bit cloudierfurther london, this from southwark but a bit cloudier further north, the satellite picture tells a story nicely, all of this code affecting western areas, some breaks so it's not complete write—off, sunny spells for the south west, north east

scotla nd for the south west, north east scotland doing well, temperatures up to 26 and plenty of sunshine for central and eastern parts of england as well, temperatures into the middle 20s. the weather putting into northern ireland and west of scotland, thickening cloud and some outbreaks of rain. through the ceiling and tonight we will push it further south and east, moving out of northern ireland, across scotland and down into northern england and parts of wales and the south west. cloud and mrand parts of wales and the south west. cloud and mr and mark and drizzle, outbreaks of rain, mild night underneath this cloud, the south east holding on to clear spells, it will be on the cool side but north—west scotland and northern ireland things are cooling off as well as the weather passes through and the sky clears out. into tomorrow the weather front sticks around, as these red bulls pass along the front it may be that the rain peps up from time to time. the front also separating warm air in the south—east from colour air

across the south—east corner seeing sunny spells and temperatures here again into the middle 20s cooling off even here by the time we get into tuesday, the weather front still in evidence but not much more than a band of cloud and maybe the odd shower, some band of cloud and maybe the odd shower, some sunny band of cloud and maybe the odd shower, some sunny spells but the stench is a bit more low, 15—21 at best. as we get towards the end of the week things look like changing, the week things look like changing, the weather system moving into the north—west on wednesday, by thursday and friday the likelihood that this will spend itself up into an early low pressure which will dominate the weather across the wooden shelves for the end of the week, so the next few days looking like this. this is bbc news, i'm rebecca jones. the headlines at three.

theresa may dismisses calls for a second eu referendum, and insists she won't make compromises on her brexit chequers plan that aren't in the national interest. some in her party are unconvinced it is an incredible open sesame. you are not going to come to the house of commons and say, "that was not in the national interest," are you? the former prime minister gordon brown, has said the "soul" of the labour party is at stake in the dispute about the party's attitude tojews. the international holocaust remembrance alliance definition of semitism is something that we should support unanimously, unequivocally and immediately. it will be resolved and there will be a balance