Aside from paying off your mortgage what would you do with £70,000?

I'm sorry for your loss. Taking the first step towards investing is daunting. If you're planning to buy a house, a Lifetime ISA is a good shout. I used Moneybox and put the full £4,000 (maximum allowed) in per year. If you do that, you get the 25% government bonus on top, so you'd have £5,000 at the end of the tax year. I'm not an expert by any means, but I recently read up on investing and set up an All-World fund using Trading 212. I chose T212 because it's a platform that doesn't charge fees, whereas others like Vanguard do. Only invest money you're comfortable to leave for at least 5 years, and don't be tempted by individual stocks. Buying a fund means your money is spread across a lot of different industries / companies.  With investing it's about time in the market, not timing the market. Trying to time the market is a dangerous game. So don't take advice from anyone who tells you that buying shares in X company will make you a millionaire overnight or that it's the next big thing. I found Boring Money and MoneySavingExpert to be good resources to help me gen up on investing.  Good luck!