U.K. millionaire to move to mud hut:  Business tycoon to sell house, start charity in Africa

LONDON - A 41-year-old millionaire businessman who nearly died in a car crash eight years ago is leaving behind his exquisite 16th-century farmhouse and lavish lifestyle to move to a mud hut in Uganda and start a children’s charity.

Jon Pedley plans to sell his telecommunications businesses, a $1.5 million Essex farmhouse with a 1-acre garden and his furniture to raise cash for African orphans, the U.K. Daily Mail reported Wednesday.

His charity, Uganda Vision, will send troubled British children to Uganda where they will help locals orphaned by AIDS and poverty.

The self-made tycoon has a troubled past that includes a criminal record, alcoholism and affairs. He says a serious car crash in 2002 in which he almost died led him to find God.

“I’ve lived an incredibly selfish existence,” Pedley, of Finchingfield, Essex, was quoted as saying in the Daily Mail. “I’ve been convicted of crime, slept rough, been an alcoholic, had affairs, and damaged people’s lives including my own. I’ve always put the pursuit of money in front of everything else.”  Read Article