Apologies in advance but when I was working someone ran " The Stiff Stakes" . Basically a sweepstake so each week we paid in a pound into a fund and in return drew out the name of an aged celebrity [apologies as this is macabre and on reflection all these years later really insensitive but when you are young and daft] . When the celebrity passed away the person with that name in the draw took the pot . I only mention it only in the context of John's post . The anecdote to the story was the organiser drew Catherine Cookson who was critically ill a few times , went into hospital , recovered and wrote another book much to his ire and in the end someone else died before her so he lost out.