Successful a existence-modifying amount of cash is really a dream harboured by a lot of, but what's existence like when that actually happens?

"Ray, we've got a few figures!"

Sat at your house on the Saturday night, nurse Barbara Wragg experienced switched about the Television to find the Nationwide Lottery outcomes.

Supplying a working commentary to her partner Ray, Individuals a few matching numbers about the pair's ticket swiftly grew to become "4", then "5" after which astoundingly, the magic "six".

In just half an hour, the pair learnt they'd gained the £7.6m jackpot and daily life had transformed for good.


Recalling that instant Pretty much 1 / 4 of the century on, Ray remembers: "I claimed "you happen to be kidding me?!"

"We ended up caught for what to do and what to convey. We ended up just flabbergasted."

A person in his eighties sits on a black couch in a very lounge. He's holding a brass-coloured trophy in the shape of your Nationwide Lottery logo
Ray Wragg and wife Barbara received a Exclusive trophy from lottery organisers for their philanthropy

Ray, who turns 87 on New 12 months's Working day, cracked open a can of Guinness, though Barbara had a glass of wine.

The pair sang 'Who wants to certainly be a millionaire' as they identified as their a few kids to tell them the information.

"50 % one hour afterwards we rang Camelot and we learned we might received £seven.6m that night time," Ray suggests.

The next contact roofer Ray, from Sheffield, would make was to his boss, Dave, the following early morning.

He was because of be back at Focus on a making web-site in south Wales at 08:00 GMT about the Monday, which would have needed the then sixty two-12 months-old to depart property to get a 4-hour generate in the early hrs of the darkish Wintertime morning.

When Ray explained to him he had chose to retire, a surprised Dave responded by asking him tongue-in-cheek, "Have you ever received the lottery?!"

"Effectively, Of course I've," was Ray's sincere reply.

Wraggs to riches
"I retired that Saturday evening in a few respects," Ray claims, recalling that weekend in January 2000.

"I failed to know what to say but I'd in no way have explained 'things your task' or nearly anything like that. I am not that kind of individual."

Though the construction field eventually turned "tiring" and concerned him travelling as much as one,000 miles each week to all 4 corners of the UK, Ray suggests he savored perform.

But the chance of retirement for him and for Barbara, who had labored night shifts for the Royal Hallamshire Hospital for 22 yrs, was as well fantastic to miss.

The first thing Ray did Along with the winnings was purchase a £fifty two,000 white Variety Rover, even though the few also went over a glamorous cruise.

Barbara's panic of traveling experienced Beforehand limited them to domestic holiday seasons.

"I do think we went to Torquay for approximately twenty years to the trot - all five of us," Ray states.

Like most lottery winners, Ray and Barbara took the opportunity to go on some in their winnings to their youngsters together with other kinfolk.

But it was their generosity to Other individuals exterior their loved ones device which would make headlines in the yrs that followed.

They reportedly gave away most in their winnings - earning a rebuke from their economic advisor.


PA A pair dressed in crimson and white Sheffield United shirts keep champagne flutes bearing the National Lottery emblem aloft. A soccer bearing the Sheffield United badge is between their heads.PA
Barbara Wragg experienced labored like a nurse in Sheffield for many years
Barbara, who died of sepsis in 2018 within the age of seventy seven, once publicly mentioned their winnings ended up "far too much for 2 people".

"We experienced people say 'does one not want to maintain it for yourselves?'" Ray claims now.

"But we ended up within our sixties (at time) and we created a great deal of people delighted."

Tens of countless numbers was offered absent on the hospital where by Barbara had labored, in addition to into the regional kid's clinic.

There was also £twelve,000 to permit Globe War Two veterans to return to Monte Cassino in Italy in 2004, sixty decades right after Allied Forces gained an important victory there.

The pair were still left touched by a several of the correspondence they bought Later on, which bundled letters from widows of troopers who experienced died to the battlefield.


A person in his eighties sits over a black sofa within a lounge. He's Keeping a black coffee mug. A lampshade is within the background.
Ray suggests the lottery adjusted his and Barbara's lives, although not them as persons
One more act of philanthropy stands out in Ray's thoughts.

"We picked up the Sheffield Star newspaper one evening, as well as a youthful lad of 11 or twelve experienced saved his income up to buy a motorcycle," he recollects.

"He'd gone to the park and these a few lads experienced run off with it and left him, the lousy lad."

The Wraggs experienced a mountain bicycle they'd barely utilised and so termed up the Star to create สลาก กิน รัฐบาล contact with the boy's family so they might give it to him.

"You can not buy the expression on his experience," Ray suggests. "He was jumping up and down for joy and Using up and down, as you should should you ended up A child."

The pair's charity work earned them a Particular trophy from Camelot in 2002, together with Invites to Buckingham Palace plus the Delight of Britain awards.

They rubbed shoulders with Richard Branson, Princess Diana's former butler along with the Coronation Road cast, but Ainsley Harriott stands out in Ray's mind as one of the "nicest" celebrities the few satisfied.


Sheffield United fan Ray continue to goes swimming at his community leisure centre 3 early mornings each week and he stays a Bramall Lane regular for the weekends.

He insists he's under no circumstances had any hassle from people today considering that that massive win 25 yrs back.

"All they've desired to do whenever they us in the road is rub our shoulder for a certain amount of luck and thank us for what we have done for the kids.

"We have experienced a wonderful time and served a lot of people," he smiles.

Ray suggests he and Barbara remembered their roots and would've remained delighted persons even had they not won the lottery.

"I had been Performing, Barbara was Doing work, the kids were being Doing work," he says. "We were being all appropriate.

"Like other families do, we saved up.

"It adjusted our lives but not us as people.

"That's stood us in very good stead. I still have a look at the cost of a set of socks you understand!"

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