Profitable a lifestyle-shifting sum of money can be a dream harboured by many, but what is lifetime like when that actually transpires?

"Ray, we've got 3 figures!"

Sat at your home over a Saturday evening, nurse Barbara Wragg experienced switched on the TV to obtain the National Lottery final results.

Offering a jogging commentary to her partner Ray, All those 3 matching figures about the couple's ticket rapidly became "4", then "five" and after that astoundingly, the magic "6".

In just 50 % an hour or so, the pair learnt they had gained the £7.6m jackpot and life experienced transformed without end.


Recalling that moment Pretty much a quarter of the century on, Ray remembers: "I mentioned "you might be kidding me?!"

"We have been trapped for what to do and what to state. We were just flabbergasted."

A man in his eighties sits over a black couch in a lounge. He is holding a brass-coloured trophy in the shape of your National Lottery logo
Ray Wragg and spouse Barbara received a Particular trophy from lottery organisers for their philanthropy

Ray, who turns 87 on New Yr's Day, cracked open up a can of Guinness, while Barbara experienced a glass of wine.

The pair sang 'Who would like to be described as a millionaire' because they named their three kids to inform them the news.

"Half an hour afterwards we rang Camelot and we discovered we'd received £7.6m that night time," Ray states.

The next call roofer Ray, from Sheffield, would make was to his manager, Dave, the subsequent morning.

He was due to be back again at Focus on a creating site in south Wales at 08:00 GMT about the Monday, which might have essential the then sixty two-year-outdated to depart house for your 4-hour travel in the early hours of a dark Winter season early morning.

When Ray explained to him he experienced chose to retire, a stunned Dave responded by asking him tongue-in-cheek, "have you received the lottery?!"

"Perfectly, yes I've," was Ray's straightforward reply.

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

"I did not understand what to convey but I would by no means have said 'things your work' or something like that. I am not that sort of particular person."

Whilst the construction sector ultimately grew to become "tiring" and associated him travelling around one,000 miles every week to all 4 corners of the united kingdom, Ray says he appreciated operate.

But the prospect of retirement for him and for Barbara, who had worked evening shifts for the Royal Hallamshire Hospital for 22 many years, was far too good to miss.

The first thing Ray did While using the winnings was buy a £fifty two,000 white Range Rover, even though the pair also went over a glamorous cruise.

Barbara's panic of traveling experienced Formerly restricted them to domestic holiday seasons.

"I do think we went to Torquay for approximately 20 years about the trot - all five of us," Ray says.

Like most lottery winners, Ray and Barbara took the chance to go on some of their winnings for their young children and other family members.

But it absolutely was their generosity to other people outdoors their loved ones device which might make headlines inside the yrs that adopted.

They reportedly gave absent most in their winnings - earning a rebuke from their financial advisor.


PA A pair wearing pink and white Sheffield United shirts keep champagne flutes bearing the Countrywide Lottery symbol aloft. A soccer bearing the Sheffield United badge is between their heads.PA
Barbara Wragg had worked as a nurse in Sheffield for decades
Barbara, who died of sepsis in 2018 on the age of seventy seven, at the time publicly stated their winnings had been "too much for 2 persons".

"We experienced men and women say 'do you not want to maintain it for yourselves?'" Ray claims now.

"But we have been inside our sixties (at enough time) and we manufactured a lot of folks satisfied."

Tens of hundreds was presented absent for the healthcare facility in which Barbara experienced worked, and for the community kid's hospital.

There was also £12,000 to permit World War Two veterans to return to Monte Cassino in Italy in 2004, sixty yrs following Allied Forces won a crucial victory there.

The couple ended up remaining touched by a a number of the correspondence they acquired afterwards, which included letters from widows of soldiers who experienced died within the battlefield.


A person in his eighties sits on a black sofa in a lounge. He's Keeping a black coffee mug. A lampshade is while in the background.
Ray states the lottery transformed his and Barbara's life, although not them as people
One more act of philanthropy stands out in Ray's intellect.

"We picked up the Sheffield Star newspaper 1 evening, and also a youthful lad of 11 or 12 had saved his income up to obtain a bike," he recalls.

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

The Wraggs had a mountain bike they'd scarcely made use of and so known as up the Star to make สลาก กิน connection with the boy's family members so they might give it to him.

"You can't purchase the expression on his facial area," Ray suggests. "He was jumping up and down for Pleasure and Using up and down, as you'll in case you were A child."

The couple's charity do the job attained them a Unique trophy from Camelot in 2002, as well as invitations to Buckingham Palace and the Delight of Britain awards.

They rubbed shoulders with Richard Branson, Princess Diana's previous butler and also the Coronation Road Forged, but Ainsley Harriott stands out in Ray's mind as among the list of "nicest" celebs the few fulfilled.


Sheffield United fan Ray nevertheless goes swimming at his regional leisure centre 3 early mornings weekly and he stays a Bramall Lane common within the weekends.

He insists he is under no circumstances experienced any bother from individuals because that huge gain 25 many years back.

"All they've wanted to do whenever they us in the street is rub our shoulder for a certain amount of luck and thank us for what we've finished for the children.

"We have had an amazing time and helped a good deal of folks," he smiles.

Ray says he and Barbara remembered their roots and might have remained joyful folks even had they not gained the lottery.

"I used to be working, Barbara was Functioning, the children have been Performing," he claims. "We ended up all ideal.

"Like other people do, we saved up.

"It adjusted our life but not us as persons.

"Which is stood us in fantastic stead. I however have a look at the price of a set of socks you already know!"

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