Profitable a lifetime-switching amount of money is usually a dream harboured by lots of, but exactly what is daily life like when that truly takes place?

"Ray, We have got a few figures!"

Sat in your house with a Saturday night time, nurse Barbara Wragg experienced switched about the Tv set to obtain the National Lottery results.

Offering a managing commentary to her husband Ray, Those people three matching quantities about the few's ticket immediately turned "4", then "five" after which you can astoundingly, the magic "six".

In half an hour, the pair learnt that they had won the £7.6m jackpot and lifetime had changed forever.


Recalling that minute Nearly 1 / 4 of a century on, Ray remembers: "I said "you might be kidding me?!"

"We had been caught for how to proceed and what to mention. We were just flabbergasted."

A man in his eighties sits on the black sofa inside of a lounge. He is Keeping a brass-coloured trophy in The form with the Nationwide Lottery emblem
Ray Wragg and wife Barbara been given a Unique trophy from lottery organisers for his or her philanthropy

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

The pair sang 'Who wants to be described as a millionaire' because they termed their 3 little ones to inform them the news.

"Fifty percent one hour later on we rang Camelot and we learned we would gained £7.6m that evening," Ray says.

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

He was as a result of be again at Focus on a making internet site in south Wales at 08:00 GMT within the Monday, which might have required the then 62-12 months-aged to depart residence for a 4-hour drive while in the early hrs of the darkish Winter season morning.

When Ray advised him he had decided to retire, a shocked Dave responded by asking him tongue-in-cheek, "Have you ever gained the lottery?!"

"Perfectly, Certainly I have," was Ray's truthful reply.

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

"I failed to know very well what to say but I would hardly ever have explained 'things your position' or anything at all like that. I am not that kind of particular person."

While the development business at some point became "tiring" and concerned him travelling as much as 1,000 miles every week to all 4 corners of the UK, Ray says he enjoyed do the job.

But the prospect of retirement for him and for Barbara, who experienced worked night time shifts for the Royal Hallamshire Clinic for 22 decades, was far too very good to miss.

The very first thing Ray did Together with the winnings was purchase a £fifty two,000 white Selection Rover, while the few also went over a glamorous cruise.

Barbara's panic of flying had Formerly restricted them to domestic vacations.

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

Like most lottery winners, Ray and Barbara took the opportunity to pass on some in their winnings to their kids together with other relations.

But it absolutely was their generosity to Other individuals exterior their relatives unit which would make headlines in the years that adopted.

They reportedly gave away most of their winnings - earning a rebuke from their financial advisor.


PA A few dressed in pink and white Sheffield United shirts maintain champagne flutes bearing the National Lottery emblem aloft. A soccer bearing the Sheffield United badge is in between their heads.PA
Barbara Wragg experienced labored to be a nurse in Sheffield for many years
Barbara, who died of sepsis in 2018 on the age of seventy seven, as soon as publicly stated their winnings were "excessive for 2 people".

"We had folks say 'would you not want to maintain it for yourselves?'" Ray suggests now.

"But we were in our sixties (at the time) and we produced a whole lot of individuals satisfied."

Tens of countless numbers was supplied absent to the hospital exactly where Barbara had worked, and also into the local kid's medical center.

There was also £12,000 to permit Environment War Two veterans to return to Monte Cassino in Italy in 2004, 60 several years soon after Allied Forces won a crucial victory there.

The pair were still left touched by a a number of the correspondence they received Later on, which involved letters from widows of soldiers who experienced died within the battlefield.


A person in his eighties sits on the black couch within a living room. He is Keeping a black coffee mug. A lampshade is while in the background.
Ray states the lottery improved his and Barbara's lives, but not them as persons
Another act of philanthropy stands out in Ray's brain.

"We picked up the Sheffield Star newspaper one night, and also a younger lad of 11 or twelve had saved his dollars up to get a bike," he remembers.

"He'd long gone in the park and these three lads had operate off with it and remaining him, the very poor lad."

The Wraggs experienced a mountain bike they'd scarcely utilised and so known as up the Star to generate luckyvip77 contact with the boy's spouse and children so they could give it to him.

"You can not buy the expression on his deal with," Ray says. "He was jumping up and down for Pleasure and Driving up and down, as you'd probably for those who had been a kid."

The few's charity work earned them a Exclusive trophy from Camelot in 2002, as well as invitations to Buckingham Palace as well as the Satisfaction 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 many "nicest" celebs the couple fulfilled.


Sheffield United admirer Ray even now goes swimming at his nearby leisure centre a few early mornings every week and he remains a Bramall Lane frequent for the weekends.

He insists he's hardly ever had any hassle from individuals considering the fact that that huge earn twenty five a long time in the past.

"All they have wanted to do whenever they us in the road is rub our shoulder for a bit of luck and thank us for what we've completed for the children.

"We've had an amazing time and aided quite a bit of people," he smiles.

Ray says he and Barbara remembered their roots and would have remained pleased folks even had they not received the lottery.

"I used to be Performing, Barbara was Performing, the children had been working," he claims. "We have been all correct.

"Like other people do, we saved up.

"It transformed our life but not us as folks.

"That's stood us in superior stead. I even now look at the cost of a set of socks you understand!"

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