Profitable a everyday living-altering amount of cash is actually a desire harboured by several, but what's existence like when that really transpires?

"Ray, We have got a few numbers!"

Sat in your own home over a Saturday night, nurse Barbara Wragg had switched around the Television set to get the Nationwide Lottery effects.

Providing a running commentary to her spouse Ray, Individuals 3 matching quantities within the few's ticket quickly became "four", then "five" after which you can astoundingly, the magic "six".

In just 50 % one hour, the pair learnt they had won the £seven.6m jackpot and lifestyle had improved endlessly.


Recalling that second almost a quarter of the century on, Ray remembers: "I claimed "you might be kidding me?!"

"We were caught for what to do and what to mention. We were just flabbergasted."

A man in his eighties sits over a black couch in a living room. He is holding a brass-coloured trophy in the shape from the National Lottery logo
Ray Wragg and spouse Barbara been given a Unique trophy from lottery organisers for their philanthropy

Ray, who turns 87 on New Calendar year's Working day, cracked open a can of Guinness, whilst Barbara experienced a glass of wine.

The pair sang 'Who would like to be considered a millionaire' as they named their 3 little ones to tell them the information.

"Fifty percent one hour later on we rang Camelot and we learned we might gained £seven.6m that night," Ray says.

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

He was as a result of be back again at Focus on a building internet site in south Wales at 08:00 GMT over the Monday, which might have required the then 62-year-old to leave residence for the four-hour generate while in the early hrs of a dim Wintertime morning.

When Ray advised him he had decided to retire, a stunned Dave responded by inquiring him tongue-in-cheek, "have you won the lottery?!"

"Effectively, Indeed I have," was Ray's genuine reply.

Wraggs to riches
"I retired that Saturday evening in some respects," Ray suggests, recalling that weekend in January 2000.

"I did not know what to say but I might under no circumstances have claimed 'things your work' or just about anything like that. I am not that sort of individual."

Whilst the development business inevitably became "tiring" and included him travelling up to 1,000 miles each week to all four corners of the UK, Ray states he savored work.

But the possibility of retirement for him and for Barbara, who had worked night time shifts within the Royal Hallamshire Healthcare facility for 22 decades, was much too superior to miss out on.

The first thing Ray did Using the winnings was buy a £fifty two,000 white Selection Rover, whilst the pair also went on the glamorous cruise.

Barbara's fear of flying experienced Beforehand restricted them to domestic holiday seasons.

"I believe we went to Torquay for about twenty years on the trot - all five of us," Ray claims.

Like most lottery winners, Ray and Barbara took the chance to pass on some of their winnings to their little ones along with other relations.

But it absolutely was their generosity to other people outside their household unit which would make headlines inside the a long time that followed.

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


PA A pair wearing crimson and white Sheffield United shirts hold champagne flutes bearing the Countrywide Lottery brand aloft. A football bearing the Sheffield United badge is between their heads.PA
Barbara Wragg had labored being a nurse in Sheffield for decades
Barbara, who died of sepsis in 2018 within the age of seventy seven, as soon as publicly said their winnings ended up "a lot of for 2 folks".

"We experienced individuals say 'would you not want to maintain it for yourselves?'" Ray says now.

"But we ended up inside our sixties (at the time) and we manufactured lots of individuals content."

Tens of countless numbers was specified absent to the hospital exactly where Barbara had labored, as well as to the local kid's medical center.

There was also £12,000 to allow Environment War Two veterans to return to Monte Cassino in Italy in 2004, sixty several years soon after Allied Forces won a vital victory there.

The couple were being still left touched by a a few of the correspondence they obtained afterwards, which involved letters from widows of soldiers who had died on the battlefield.


A man in his eighties sits over a black couch inside a front room. He's holding a black espresso mug. A lampshade is during the history.
Ray suggests the lottery adjusted his and Barbara's life, but not them as individuals
An additional act of philanthropy stands out in Ray's mind.

"We picked up the Sheffield Star newspaper one night time, plus a young lad of eleven or 12 experienced saved his cash up to buy a motorcycle," he recollects.

"He'd absent into the park and these 3 lads experienced run off with it and still left him, the bad lad."

The Wraggs had a mountain bicycle they'd barely utilised and so called up the Star to generate luckyvip77 connection with the boy's household so they could give it to him.

"You can not buy the expression on his face," Ray claims. "He was jumping up and down for joy and Driving up and down, as you'd probably if you have been A child."

The couple's charity get the job done earned them a Particular trophy from Camelot in 2002, and invitations to Buckingham Palace as well as the Delight of Britain awards.

They rubbed shoulders with Richard Branson, Princess Diana's previous butler as well as Coronation Avenue Forged, but Ainsley Harriott stands out in Ray's mind as one of many "nicest" superstars the few satisfied.


Sheffield United enthusiast Ray nevertheless goes swimming at his neighborhood leisure centre three early mornings each week and he continues to be a Bramall Lane standard on the weekends.

He insists he's never experienced any bother from people today due to the fact that huge gain 25 years in the past.

"All they have wished to do should they us in the street is rub our shoulder for a little luck and thank us for what we have completed for the youngsters.

"We've had an amazing time and served a lot of individuals," he smiles.

Ray claims he and Barbara remembered their roots and would've remained joyful individuals even had they not won the lottery.

"I was Operating, Barbara was Functioning, the kids had been Operating," he says. "We were all ideal.

"Like other people do, we saved up.

"It adjusted our lives although not us as people.

"That's stood us in good stead. I however have a look at the price of a pair of socks you realize!"

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