LONDON -- Less than 60 percent of millionaires who have won big in Britain’s National Lottery have immediately quit work after scooping a seven-figure sum. And, surprisingly, almost one in five continued to work, despite the life-changing cash, according to a new study.

When it comes to spending it, the most popular make of car bought by lottery winners was an Audi, almost a third of winners had a Jacuzzi installed in their home, and their favorite vacation destination was the United States, where they usually stayed in a five-star hotel.

The revelations come in an analysis of the spending and investments of the 3,000 lucky winners of £1 million ($1.6 million) or more since Britain’s National Lottery launched in 1994.

The study, released Monday, was commissioned by Camelot, the company that operates the National Lottery and analyzed by the U.K. financial consultancy Oxford Economics.

'A ripple effect'
It paints a picture of generosity cascading down the family tree. The 3,000 winners have made a further 3,780 millionaires among children, other relatives and friends.

 "The effect of a win spreads much further and wider than we anticipated ... each win creates a ripple effect across this generation and very often the next," said Andy Logan of Oxford Economics.

The average win has been calculated to be £2.8 million ($4.48 million). If paid out in £10 bills and laid end-to-end, the sum would stretch 25 miles.

At a time when Britain’s finances are suffering from a downturn, the findings suggest a welcome infusion of cash into the country's economy. Winners spent 98 percent of their winnings in Britain, contributing almost £750 million ($1.2 billion)  to the economy and generating over £500 million ($800 million) in tax receipts.

Between them, the 3,000 winners have bought 7,958 homes, 17,190 new cars and 300 mobile homes in which to spend their leisure time.

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But many millionaires have not opted for the easy life.

The study identified 900 British businesses that have been started or supported by winners, employing more than 3,000 people. Almost one-third have taken up unpaid voluntary work as a way of passing the time.

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Torrential rain sweeping across much of Britain is bringing widespread flooding to homes and businesses in its wake.

Some areas are expected to receive up to one month’s rainfall in 24 hours. Farmers have been urged to move livestock from low-lying fields, summer concerts have been canceled and the British Grand Prix at Silverstone is facing a washout.

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LONDON -- British doctors staged their first strike in nearly 40 years Thursday over plans to increase the amount they pay into their pension fund and make them work until they are 68, ITV News reported.

The government says doctors would receive more than $105,000 a year after the age of 68 under its proposals.

However the British Medical Association, which represents doctors, says the highest earning doctors will have to pay 14.5 percent of their pay into the pension fund by 2014, compared with 8.5 percent in March 2012.

They also claim the new deal would actually leave retired doctors worse off.

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ITV News reported that early polls suggested as few as 22 percent of the BMA's more than 100,000 members were taking part in the strike.

"Nobody is happy about taking any kind of action that impacts adversely on patients. There has been a lot of soul searching in the BMA, but we have to represent our members' views and nearly three-quarters of those who voted wanted to take this kind of action because they were so angry about what was happening to their pensions," Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the BMA, told ITV News.

U.K. Health Secretary Andrew Lansley told the station that up to 1.25 million doctor appointments could have to be delayed.

He said the BMA was "out on their own" because other trade unions in the U.K.'s public health service had agreed to a new deal "even if they didn't want to increase contributions for their pensions."

ITV News is NBC's U.K. partner.

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A majority of doctors in a United Kingdom survey supported measures to deny non-emergency medical services to smokers and the obese, The Observer newspaper reported Sunday.

Although the survey by the networking website doctors.net.uk was a self-selecting poll, the site's chief executive called the response "a tectonic shift" for the profession.

The results feed into a British debate about "lifestyle rationing" by the National Health Service, the Observer reported.

The survey by doctors.net.uk, which claims nearly 192,000 members, found that 593, or 54 percent, of the 1,096 doctors who participated answered yes to this question: "Should the NHS be allowed to refuse non-emergency treatments to patients unless they lose weight or stop smoking?"

Doctors who approved gave a few examples, The Observer said:

• Denying in-vitro fertilization to childless women who smoke was justified because the procedure was only half as successful for them as for non-smokers.
• Obese or alcoholic patients should be expected to change their behaviors before undergoing liver transplant surgery.

Doctors and patients who oppose lifestyle rationing call the approach blackmail that denies the sick their human rights, The Observer said.

Dr. Tim Ringrose, doctors.net.uk's chief executive, told The Observer the findings represent a significant change in doctors' attitudes, considering that the health service must save 20 billion pounds ($32.5 billion) by 2015.

"This might appear to be only a slim majority of doctors in favor of limiting treatment to some patients who fail to look after themselves, but it represents a tectonic shift for a profession that has always sought to provide free healthcare from the cradle to the grave," Ringrose said.

Dr. Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, told The Observer the NHS should deliver care according to need.

“Clearly, giving up smoking is a good thing,” Gerada told The Observer. “But blackmailing people by telling them that they have to give up isn't what doctors should be doing."

Clinical advice about lifestyle changes are another matter, other doctors said.

"Lifestyles contribute to risk and sometimes they may make treatments too risky to undertake,” John Saunders, chair of the Royal College of Physicians ethics committees, told The Observer. “But that's quite different to saying, 'I'm not going to give you surgery because you smoke or are overweight.'"

Some UK private care trusts already ban in-vitro fertilization, breast reconstructions and hip and knee replacements for smokers and the obese, The Observer said.

Dr. Michael Ingram, chair of Red House Clinical Commissioning Group in Hertfordshire, last month wrote in the doctors' website Pulse that "Rationing is dressed up as science."

"Where does this go next? Will we deny IVF to those who have had pelvic inflammatory disease because of its association with sexual promiscuity?" Ingram wrote.

In the United States, debates have been held on withholding liver transplants for alcoholics and coronary artery bypass surgery for smokers, although no ban is in place.

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