WHAT would you do if you won the lottery? We’ve all dreamed about it during a dull commute, a bad day at the office or when we go to buy our ticket.

And a former Daily Echo journalist has written a book answering just that question.

Cathy Bussey, nee Wallace, explores the possibilities from giving to charity to buying a gold-plated yacht, whether you win a few hundred pounds or hit it really lucky with a Euromillions jackpot worth tens of millions in her new book What To Do When You Win the Lottery.

She also has some handy tips for would be lottery winners.

But before you get too excited, she doesn’t have the secret to winning.

“There’s no formula to help you calculate what number will win,” says Cathy, who was at the Echo from 2004 to 2006.

“If these formulas worked, why would people be pedalling them?

Why wouldn’t they just use them to win the jackpot themselves? There’s no way you can improve your chance of being a winner other than by buying more tickets.”

But she does have some tips about making your win more successful – including signing a syndicate agreement so you don’t lose some 40 per cent of your jackpot to the tax man if you do win, and deciding whether to go public with your success or not.

Cathy wrote the book last year, while working as deputy editor at PR Week.

“Anyone could win the lottery but how would it affect your life?” she says.

“Would you quit your job? What will it do to your relationship? How could you make sure that it really was happily ever after?

For some people, a lottery win has ruined their lives.

“Interestingly, there’s also research that shows that on average it takes two years from when you win the lottery to get over the shock, disruption and start to enjoy it.”

Not that winning the lottery is all doom and gloom though!

Cathy has some handy suggestions for what you can spend your haul on.

She cautions that it takes more than £1m to live what would be considered a millionaire lifestyle.

“£1m enables you to live comfortably, but it’s not going to buy you the jetsetting, yacht-owning, Ferrari-driving, mansion-dwelling lifestyle you associate with ‘millionaire’,” she says.

In fact, it is estimated that you need around £6m to live what is thought of as a millionaire lifestyle.

If you won £1m, you could blow the whole lot on a private performance at your wedding from Jennifer Lopez.

Double that would get you a 100ft yacht while for £3m you could treat yourself to Cheryl Cole’s lavish two bedroom LA apartment.

But Cathy says that the thing people seem to enjoy daydreaming about most is how much money they would give to their friends and family.

And what’s more 91 per cent of National Lottery winners give money to charity.

Cathy encourages lottery winners to be generous.

“If you win, give to charity,” she says.

“It will help you feel better about yourself and it will benefit others. Some winners question if they really deserve it. It can help with the emotional processing if you use your good fortune to help other people.”

She adds that the National Lottery is itself a good thing.

“When it was introduced it was pretty controversial – people saying it was state gambling and so on,” she says.

“Since it launched in 1994, those playing have raised an amazing £26 bn for good causes. It has done so much for good causes directly as well as independent giving.”

Cathy herself admits that she has never won more than £10 herself but she keeps on trying.

“I like a scratch card,” she says. It’s the instant hit that gets me."

CATHY’S TOP LOTTERY TIPS * Only spend what you can afford. If you want to be in with a chance but money is tight, why not join a syndicate? If you ever feel you are getting out of control, get help from an organisation like Gamblers Anonymous UK.

* If you want to win really big, choose Euromillions.

You probably have a better chance of winning a decent size prize on Thunderball because the prizes are fixed every week but you’re never going to get a hundred million or so. You need Euromillions for that.

* If you’re in a syndicate you absolutely have to have a syndicate agreement. If not, members of your syndicate will be hit by inheritance tax. An agreement also helps out with deciding what happens if someone has missed paying and your numbers come up.

* If you want to win the lottery you have to play it! Even if you’ve been playing for ten years and never won a penny, you’ve still got the same chance as anyone else of winning.

*What To Do When You Win The Lottery by Cathy Bussey is published by Golden Guides Press.