'We won the lottery but I even now check the price of socks'

Successful a existence-altering amount of cash is actually a aspiration harboured by lots of, but what on earth is everyday living like when that actually happens?

"Ray, we've got three numbers!"

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

Supplying a working commentary to her partner Ray, People a few matching numbers to the couple's ticket speedily turned "four", then "five" and afterwards 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 minute Pretty much 1 / 4 of the century on, Ray remembers: "I claimed "you happen to be kidding me?!"

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

A person in his eighties sits over a black sofa in a family room. He is Keeping a brass-coloured trophy in the shape from the Countrywide Lottery emblem
Ray Wragg and spouse Barbara gained a Particular trophy from lottery organisers for his or her philanthropy

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

The pair sang 'Who would like to be considered a millionaire' because they called their three little ones to inform them the information.

"Half an hour later we rang Camelot and we discovered we would received £seven.6m that evening," Ray suggests.

Another call roofer Ray, from Sheffield, would make was to his boss, Dave, the following early morning.

He was due to be back at Focus on a setting up web page in south Wales at 08:00 GMT over the Monday, which might have essential the then 62-calendar year-outdated to leave home for just a four-hour travel from the early hours of the dark Winter season early morning.

When Ray advised him he experienced chose to retire, a astonished Dave responded by asking him tongue-in-cheek, "Have you ever received the lottery?!"

"Effectively, Of course I've," was Ray's truthful reply.

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

"I didn't really know what to state but I would hardly ever have stated 'stuff your occupation' or everything like that. I'm not that kind of person."

Even though the construction field eventually turned "tiring" and included him travelling around 1,000 miles every week to all four corners of the united kingdom, Ray states he enjoyed do the job.

But the possibility of retirement for him and for Barbara, who experienced worked evening shifts in the Royal Hallamshire Medical center for 22 many years, was much too excellent to pass up.

The first thing Ray did Along with the winnings was purchase a £fifty two,000 white Variety Rover, even though the pair also went with a glamorous cruise.

Barbara's worry of flying had Formerly restricted them to domestic holidays.

"I believe we went to Torquay for around 20 years around 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 to their kids and also other kin.

But it was their generosity to Other individuals exterior their household unit which might make headlines inside the years that followed.

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


PA A couple wearing red and white Sheffield United shirts maintain champagne flutes bearing the Countrywide Lottery logo aloft. A football bearing the Sheffield United badge is between their heads.PA
Barbara Wragg experienced labored as being a nurse in Sheffield for decades
Barbara, who died of sepsis in 2018 for the age of seventy seven, as soon as publicly explained their winnings were being "an excessive amount of for two folks".

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

"But we had been in our sixties (at some time) and we built lots of folks content."

Tens of 1000's was offered absent on the clinic where by Barbara had labored, along with towards the community 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 a long time just after Allied Forces won a crucial victory there.

The few ended up remaining touched by a a number of the correspondence they acquired Later on, which involved letters from widows of troopers who experienced died to the battlefield.


A person in his eighties sits over a black sofa in the front room. He is holding a black espresso mug. A lampshade is from the qualifications.
Ray states the lottery modified 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, as well as a youthful lad of 11 or twelve experienced saved his funds up to buy a motorcycle," he recollects.

"He'd gone in the park and these three lads experienced run off with it and remaining him, the lousy lad."

The Wraggs had a mountain bicycle they'd barely applied and so named up the Star to help make หุ้น ชอง 9 contact with the boy's relatives so they might give it to him.

"You can not buy the expression on his deal with," Ray claims. "He was jumping up and down for Pleasure and Using up and down, as you'd probably if you ended up a kid."

The pair's charity operate earned them a special trophy from Camelot in 2002, and also invitations to Buckingham Palace as well as Pride of Britain awards.

They rubbed shoulders with Richard Branson, Princess Diana's former butler along with the Coronation Avenue Forged, but Ainsley Harriott stands out in Ray's mind as among the list of "nicest" stars the pair fulfilled.


Sheffield United supporter Ray even now goes swimming at his regional leisure centre three early mornings per week and he remains a Bramall Lane frequent for the weekends.

He insists he's by no means experienced any hassle from individuals because that massive get twenty five a long time back.

"All they've wanted to do when they us in the road is rub our shoulder for a little bit of luck and thank us for what we have finished for the youngsters.

"We have experienced an incredible time and assisted a good deal of folks," he smiles.

Ray claims he and Barbara remembered their roots and would've remained joyful people even experienced they not gained the lottery.

"I used to be Doing work, Barbara was Doing work, the kids were working," he says. "We ended up all suitable.

"Like other households do, we saved up.

"It changed our lives although not us as persons.

"That is stood us in good stead. I however examine the cost of a set of socks you understand!"

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