What it's REALLY like to win the Lottery... by a couple who banked £2.2m

2024-04-25 08:00:24 [politics] Source：International Insights news portal

Nearly three decades ago, my husband won £1,500 on The National Lottery not long after it had first started.

When Colin* popped into his local Post Office to claim his winnings, the man behind the counter told him people who win a small amount on the Lottery tend to win again.

'Yeah, right! He got that wrong,' we often joked together in the years that followed. For although Colin played every week, there was no such win.

But one Wednesday night in February 2012, in the days when the Lottery results were televised, Colin stayed up to check his numbers in the draw.

I had just gone to bed and — I'm not sure why — I decided to pray for us to win.

Life-changing: A lottery winning couple - who scooped £2.2m in February 2012 - have opted to spend much of their winnings on cruises and trips

The previous year had been a tough one for both of us. My brother had passed away in November, which knocked me for six, while Colin, then 51, had fallen off a ladder. His skull fractured in two places, he cracked three ribs and he broke a bone in his hand.

He was out of commission as a self-employed gardener and, with me working as a part-time receptionist, we were beginning to feel the pinch.

I'll never forget Colin coming into the bedroom and saying, almost in a whisper, 'I think I've won the Lottery'.

Colin thought he'd matched five numbers — six were needed to win the jackpot — and he guessed he may have won around £50,000.

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We tried to call Camelot, then operator of The National Lottery, but it couldn't verify our ticket until the next morning.

So began one of the longest nights of my husband's life. While I snored my head off, Colin tells me he lay awake most of the night.

He went to bed thinking he may have won £50,000 — the same amount as the mortgage remaining on our three-bed home in the Midlands.

But when Colin phoned Camelot first thing in the morning, he began to cry. Through the tears he told me, 'We've won £2.2 million.'

And then my tears began to fall. Tears of unbridled joy. Our lives were about to change for ever.

It only started to sink in when one of the Winners' Advisors from Camelot visited us that same day to verify our ticket. The money was in our account in less than a week. It was unbelievable to see our balance with so many zeroes.

I retired from my job as a receptionist immediately, but Colin went back to work for three years.

He couldn't quite grasp that he didn't need to work any more. And I suppose that it took us that long to fully adjust to our new-found wealth. It's not surprising given we were suddenly thrust into a world where we didn't need to worry about the size of the gas bill.

I had young grandchildren at the time of the win, and anyone with a young child knows there's no way to stop them saying certain things, so that's why we went public at first. Today, we try to keep it under wraps as much as possible — some people can be quite unfriendly.

The first thing we did after we paid off our mortgage was head to a car showroom. We were immediately recognised by a family friend who worked there and knew of our windfall. We soon realised there was no hope of getting a discounted price for a car.

Colin could have bought any car he wanted. But my husband chose a £35,000 Mercedes-Benz Estate.

Since then he's bought two Range Rovers and a Jaguar F-type. I've also had a Mercedes-Benz B-Class.

He's since slowed down on his fancy car collection, although he's always wanted a Bentley. He now has a Lexus RX and I drive a Volkswagen Polo.

We fitted a double garage for the cars. It set us back £20,000 but we wanted to hide them when people came to quote us for jobs.

We also hide the photo collage in our kitchen of us receiving the comically large cheque at a nearby luxury hotel, as workers could hike up the price of jobs if they saw this on our wall.

Some neighbours were thrilled for us. Colin says he popped into our local shop after the win to find it plastered with our photographs. Colin loved it but I didn't step foot in that shop for years — I was too embarrassed.

The friends we've known since before the win act normally around us, but when we tell people we've just met they look at us as if we've got two heads.

Allwyn, which now operates The National Lottery, arranges volunteering with other winners.

The group signs up to do voluntary work such as visiting nursing homes and refreshing the gardens in arboretums — you've got to give back if you've been so lucky, haven't you? We find it refreshing to meet people in the same situation as us.

It's lovely because you can show off a little bit without feeling guilty, so I don't need to hide the new bags I buy. Colin has bought me two Mulberry handbags over the years.

We're friends with some of the other winners — we've been out for dinner with one couple and a small group of us went to the funeral of a fellow Lottery winner.

Memories: The winning couple has shied away from material items in recent years and opted to travel more, racking up 21 cruises, including two world cruises

The first time I went into Selfridges in Birmingham after the windfall I tried on a £300 cream-and-black satin dress. I could not justify spending that much on a dress for myself — but then I remembered I could.

The most lavish purchase we've made are our almost identical Oyster Perpetual Rolexes which set us back just under £20,000.

Colin had always wanted one, so we visited Goldsmiths in Birmingham to pick out his dream watch. The jeweller asked me if I was going to get one, too, so out I walked with an £11,000 watch. We hid them on our journey home.

We've shied away from material items in recent years and opted to travel more. Before our win, we took one cruise a year which we had to save for year-round.

Since the win we've been on 21 cruises, including two world cruises — a third is booked for January 2025.

We had a cruise to the Caribbean planned for the month after we won.

My husband says when he stepped on to the ship he felt a wave of emotion — we were on the same cruise the year before and just one year later he was there as a millionaire.

While we didn't visit the Maldives on a cruise, our visit there was the best trip we've ever taken. We loved the resort so much we went twice in the same year.

The staff remembered us and couldn't do enough for us. My husband recalls an embarrassing moment from the second time we visited.

The villa we were staying in had a great open view of the sea. The shrubbery was overgrown slightly so he couldn't quite see the sea while lying in bed.

Colin mentioned it casually to a staff member who walked past — and they cut the overgrowth within five minutes. We were mortified.

We've only flown first-class once after another Lottery winner convinced us to take the leap. But we've never done it again as my husband says he can't justify the hike in price between business and first-class.

While we've enjoyed our wealth, we didn't keep it all to ourselves.

Over the years Colin bought houses for my two daughters from a previous marriage and donated a defibrillator to my grandson's special needs school, and we bought flowers for volunteers at the local cancer centre.

We don't feel wealthy enough to give thousands of pounds away at a time — the money would soon run out — but we sponsor people and donate to charity here and there.

We give back to our community by litter picking, although we joke that people wouldn't realise we had won the Lottery if they saw us out on the roads picking up crisp packets and drink bottles.

We now live in a four-bedroom detached house with electric gates just down the road from our old house.

We almost opted for an even grander property but thank goodness we didn't — we would never have been able to afford the upkeep.

We moved in a year after our win and it cost us £500,000, but my husband says he wouldn't be surprised if it was valued at closer to £1 million now. We're quite proud of it, and the giant cheque hangs on our bedroom wall.

However, a downsize is on the cards for the future. We have three and a half bathrooms and we don't use them all — my husband tells me he goes into the unused ensuite every few months just to flush the loo!

Although £2.2 million is a life-changing amount, it doesn't last. It's not enough that we can spend, spend, spend without restraint.

And we've seen our once handsome pot slowly dwindle. It's incredibly tricky to balance the spending. Colin is 13 years my junior so we need to ensure there's enough for us to enjoy a comfortable life for the next 20-plus years.

The Lottery has given us a wonderful life. Aside from having children, it's the best thing that could happen to anybody.

To anyone wondering whether money makes you happy — it absolutely does.

As told to LUCY EVANS

*Names have been changed.