Successful a everyday living-switching sum of money is a dream harboured by quite a few, but what's existence like when that really occurs?

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

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

Supplying a managing commentary to her husband Ray, All those three matching figures over the couple's ticket speedily turned "four", then "five" then astoundingly, the magic "6".

Inside 50 percent one hour, the pair learnt that they had received the £seven.6m jackpot and lifestyle had modified endlessly.


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

"We have been stuck for what to do and what to convey. We ended up just flabbergasted."

A man in his eighties sits on a black couch in the living room. He's holding a brass-coloured trophy in The form with the Nationwide Lottery symbol
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, when Barbara had a glass of wine.

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

"50 percent one hour later we rang Camelot and we found out we'd won £7.6m that night," Ray says.

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

He was as a result of be back at Focus on a setting up web page in south Wales at 08:00 GMT over the Monday, which would have required the then 62-year-old to depart home to get a four-hour drive in the early hrs of the dim Wintertime morning.

When Ray advised him he had made a decision to retire, a amazed Dave responded by asking him tongue-in-cheek, "have you received the lottery?!"

"Well, yes I've," was Ray's honest reply.

Wraggs to riches
"I retired that Saturday night time in certain respects," Ray states, recalling that weekend in January 2000.

"I failed to know very well what to mention but I might hardly ever have said 'stuff your work' or anything like that. I am not that sort of particular person."

Even though the construction field eventually became "tiring" and concerned him travelling as many as 1,000 miles each week to all four corners of the UK, Ray states he relished function.

But the chance of retirement for him and for Barbara, who experienced labored night shifts at the Royal Hallamshire Medical center for 22 several years, was too fantastic to overlook.

The very first thing Ray did Along with the winnings was buy a £52,000 white Array Rover, even though the pair also went on a glamorous cruise.

Barbara's dread of traveling had previously restricted them to domestic holidays.

"I believe we went to Torquay for around 20 years to the trot - all 5 of us," Ray claims.

Like most lottery winners, Ray and Barbara took the chance to move on some of their winnings to their kids together with other relatives.

But it absolutely was their generosity to Others outside their family members device which would make headlines within the years that followed.

They reportedly gave absent most of their winnings - earning a rebuke from their fiscal advisor.


PA A pair dressed in purple 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 worked like a nurse in Sheffield for decades
Barbara, who died of sepsis in 2018 within the age of seventy seven, as soon as publicly explained their winnings were being "an excessive amount of for two folks".

"We had individuals say 'do you not want to keep it for yourselves?'" Ray suggests now.

"But we were being inside our sixties (at enough time) and we manufactured a whole lot of individuals happy."

Tens of hundreds was supplied away into the medical center exactly where Barbara experienced worked, together with for the local children's medical center.

There was also £twelve,000 to allow Entire world War Two veterans to return to Monte Cassino in Italy in 2004, sixty many years immediately after Allied Forces received a crucial victory there.

The couple have been remaining touched by a a few of the correspondence they received afterwards, which provided letters from widows of soldiers who had died around the battlefield.


A man in his eighties sits on a black couch in a family room. He's holding a black coffee mug. A lampshade is in the history.
Ray claims the lottery transformed his and Barbara's lives, although not them as men and women
Yet another act of philanthropy stands out in Ray's thoughts.

"We picked up the Sheffield Star newspaper one evening, along with a youthful lad of 11 or 12 experienced saved his money up to acquire a bike," he remembers.

"He'd long gone in to the park and these 3 lads experienced operate off with it and left him, the very poor lad."

The Wraggs experienced a mountain bicycle they'd barely employed and so identified as up the Star to create ตรวจ สลาก connection with the boy's household so they could give it to him.

"You cannot purchase the expression on his confront," Ray claims. "He was leaping up and down for joy and riding up and down, as you would probably in the event you ended up A child."

The pair's charity work attained them a Specific trophy from Camelot in 2002, together with Invites to Buckingham Palace as well as Pleasure of Britain awards.

They rubbed shoulders with Richard Branson, Princess Diana's previous butler as well as Coronation Road Solid, but Ainsley Harriott stands out in Ray's thoughts as one of many "nicest" celebs the pair fulfilled.


Sheffield United admirer Ray nevertheless goes swimming at his nearby leisure centre a few early mornings every week and he remains a Bramall Lane common on the weekends.

He insists he is in no way experienced any bother from men and women because that vast gain 25 several years in the past.

"All they have wanted to do when 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've experienced a fantastic time and helped a great deal of individuals," he smiles.

Ray states he and Barbara remembered their roots and would have remained happy individuals even experienced they not gained the lottery.

"I was Operating, Barbara was working, the youngsters ended up Functioning," he suggests. "We ended up all correct.

"Like other people do, we saved up.

"It transformed our life but not us as people.

"That's stood us in very good stead. I nonetheless check out the price of a pair of socks you already know!"

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