'We won the lottery but I however Verify the price of socks'

'We won the lottery but I however Verify the price of socks'

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Winning a everyday living-transforming amount of cash can be a aspiration harboured by several, but exactly what is lifetime like when that really happens?

"Ray, We have a few numbers!"

Sat at home over a Saturday night time, nurse Barbara Wragg experienced switched to the TV to get the National Lottery outcomes.

Providing a working commentary to her husband Ray, Individuals three matching quantities around the couple's ticket immediately turned "4", then "five" after which astoundingly, the magic "6".

Within just fifty percent one hour, the pair learnt they had received the £seven.6m jackpot and lifestyle had altered permanently.


Recalling that instant Just about a quarter of the century on, Ray remembers: "I said "you're kidding me?!"

"We were being caught for what to do and what to convey. We had been just flabbergasted."

A person in his eighties sits with a black sofa inside a living room. He's Keeping a brass-coloured trophy in the shape of the Countrywide Lottery emblem
Ray Wragg and spouse Barbara acquired a special trophy from lottery organisers for his or her philanthropy

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

The pair sang 'Who would like to be described as a millionaire' since they named their a few young children to inform them the information.

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

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

He was as a consequence of be back at work on a setting up web page in south Wales at 08:00 GMT on the Monday, which might have required the then sixty two-calendar year-aged to leave dwelling for your 4-hour generate in the early hrs of a darkish Wintertime morning.

When Ray instructed him he had decided to retire, a astonished Dave responded by inquiring him tongue-in-cheek, "Have you ever received the lottery?!"

"Perfectly, yes I have," was Ray's genuine 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 what to convey but I would never ever have mentioned 'stuff your position' or anything like that. I'm not that sort of particular person."

Though the development sector ultimately turned "tiring" and concerned him travelling as many as one,000 miles every week to all four corners of the UK, Ray suggests he loved operate.

But the possibility of retirement for him and for Barbara, who experienced labored evening shifts within the Royal Hallamshire Hospital for 22 several years, was way too fantastic to miss out on.

The first thing Ray did Along with the winnings was purchase a £52,000 white Range Rover, while the pair also went on the glamorous cruise.

Barbara's worry of traveling had Earlier restricted them to domestic holiday seasons.

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

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

But it absolutely was their generosity to Other individuals outside their loved ones device which might make headlines in the many years that followed.

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


PA A few wearing crimson and white Sheffield United shirts hold champagne flutes bearing the Countrywide Lottery brand aloft. A football bearing the Sheffield United badge is in between their heads.PA
Barbara Wragg experienced labored for a nurse in Sheffield for many years
Barbara, who died of sepsis in 2018 with the age of 77, when publicly stated their winnings were "a lot of for two people today".

"We had people say 'does one not want to keep it for yourselves?'" Ray states now.

"But we were within our sixties (at some time) and we created lots of individuals joyful."

Tens of 1000's was supplied absent to the clinic the place Barbara experienced labored, and to the nearby children's hospital.

There was also £twelve,000 to permit Entire world War Two veterans to return to Monte Cassino in Italy in 2004, 60 years following Allied Forces received a vital victory there.

The couple had been remaining touched by a many of the correspondence they obtained afterwards, which bundled letters from widows of soldiers who experienced died around the battlefield.


A man in his eighties sits with a black sofa within a family room. He is holding a black coffee mug. A lampshade is from the background.
Ray claims the lottery improved his and Barbara's lives, but not them as men and women
Another act of philanthropy stands out in Ray's thoughts.

"We picked up the Sheffield Star newspaper one particular evening, plus a younger lad of 11 or 12 had saved his funds up to order a motorcycle," he recalls.

"He'd long gone in the park and these 3 lads had operate off with it and remaining him, the lousy lad."

The Wraggs experienced a mountain bike they'd barely used and so called up the Star to help make lottovip connection with the boy's family so they may give it to him.

"You can not purchase the expression on his experience," Ray states. "He was jumping up and down for Pleasure and riding up and down, as you'd in the event you were A child."

The couple's charity work acquired them a Particular trophy from Camelot in 2002, as well as invitations to Buckingham Palace and also 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 one of several "nicest" stars the couple met.


Sheffield United admirer Ray however goes swimming at his area leisure centre a few early mornings each week and he continues to be a Bramall Lane common within the weekends.

He insists he's never experienced any hassle from men and women considering that that vast win twenty five several years ago.

"All they have wished to do if they us in the road is rub our shoulder for a little bit of luck and thank us for what we have carried out for the youngsters.

"We've had a fantastic time and assisted a lot of individuals," he smiles.

Ray suggests he and Barbara remembered their roots and would have remained content people today even had they not won the lottery.

"I was Doing work, Barbara was Doing the job, the youngsters were Operating," he states. "We had been all appropriate.

"Like other households do, we saved up.

"It modified our lives although not us as people.

"That is stood us in excellent stead. I nevertheless examine the price of a set of socks you recognize!"

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