An elderly Irish woman who discovered a £5 worth £50,000 (€58,6830) has sent it back and asked that it be used for charity.

A Willy Wonka style golden ticket hunt is underway in the UK after a famous engraver etched a tiny picture of Jane Austen on five pound notes.

According to the Daily Telegraph a total of four were created and each one is estimated to be worth £50,000.

Now it has emerged that one has been found by an elderly Northern Irish woman, and she has kindly donated it to charity.

She sent it back to Graham Short, who engraved the notes, with a note asking him to use it to "help young people".

"£5 note enclosed, I don't need it at my time of life. Please use it to help young people," the kindly woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, wrote.

Mr Short's website reads: "The lady who found the note has surprised us all by sending it to the gallery and asking that it be used to help young people. So Graham and the Gallery will be working closely together to do so.

"Currently contacting outlets connected to Children in Need to try and give this to a good cause so we honour the request of the lucky woman who originally discovered the note.

"Stay tuned for more information as the story develops over the following days!"

The elderly woman didn't want to be famous, but just wanted her fiver to do some good.

“An old lady found it and she said 'I don't want my picture in the papers' and she said 'if it sells for a lot of money it will be better if young children could benefit from it',” Mr Short told the BBC.

Mr Short spent one of each of the four special fivers in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Earlier this month Mr Shortt wrote that the Northern Ireland note had been discovered in Donegal.

Writing on his site, he said: "This note was found by a wonderful lady from Donegal, just over the border from Northern Ireland, who contacted the gallery immediately, and sent us the photo above to show case her lucky find! The note was spent in Enniskillen in December and found at the end of January."

Mr Short's friend and fellow artist, Tony Huggins-Haig, who launched the project, said around 5,000 people have called up falsely claiming to have found it.

The series number of the remaining note is AM32885554.

"It would be wondrous if someone finds it who is deserving, who is blown away by it, and who wants to do something worthwhile with it," said 53-year-old Mr Huggins-Haig.

"It's been an incredible and humbling story thanks to Graham, who goes to incredible lengths to create artwork.

"It really is a Willy Wonka story, and one day all four stories will be told, of which the first three are incredible."

All of Mr Short's work is insured for at least £50,000, but Mr Huggins-Haig believes the notes could actually sell for up to £100,000.

Online Editors