'We received the lottery but I nevertheless Look at the cost of socks'

Winning a daily life-shifting amount of cash is really a aspiration harboured by a lot of, but what's lifestyle like when that actually occurs?

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

Sat in your own home on the Saturday night, nurse Barbara Wragg experienced switched within the TV to find the Nationwide Lottery outcomes.

Supplying a managing commentary to her husband Ray, All those three matching figures over the couple's ticket promptly turned "four", then "five" after which you can astoundingly, the magic "six".

Inside of 50 % one hour, the pair learnt they had won the £7.6m jackpot and existence had transformed forever.


Recalling that second Just about 1 / 4 of the century on, Ray remembers: "I claimed "you might be kidding me?!"

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

A person in his eighties sits on the black couch in a very front room. He's Keeping a brass-coloured trophy in The form with the Nationwide Lottery symbol
Ray Wragg and wife Barbara been given a Specific trophy from lottery organisers for their philanthropy

Ray, who turns 87 on New 12 months's Working day, cracked open a can of Guinness, even though Barbara experienced a glass of wine.

The pair sang 'Who wants to be described as a millionaire' since they named their 3 children to tell them the news.

"Fifty percent an hour or so afterwards we rang Camelot and we learned we might received £7.6m that night time," Ray suggests.

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

He was as a consequence of be back again at work on a setting up website in south Wales at 08:00 GMT over the Monday, which might have demanded the then 62-12 months-previous to depart property for your four-hour drive within the early several hours of a dim Winter season early morning.

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

"Properly, yes I have," was Ray's genuine reply.

Wraggs to riches
"I retired that Saturday night in a few respects," Ray suggests, recalling that weekend in January 2000.

"I failed to really know what to convey but I'd in no way have explained 'things your task' or just about anything like that. I am not that sort of particular person."

Despite the fact that the construction market sooner or later became "tiring" and involved him travelling nearly one,000 miles each week to all 4 corners of the UK, Ray claims he appreciated function.

But the prospect of retirement for him and for Barbara, who had labored night shifts for the Royal Hallamshire Hospital for 22 yrs, was also superior to miss out on.

The first thing Ray did With all the winnings was purchase a £fifty two,000 white Range Rover, although the few also went over a glamorous cruise.

Barbara's fear of traveling experienced previously restricted them to domestic holidays.

"I think we went to Torquay for about twenty years over the trot - all 5 of us," Ray claims.

Like most lottery winners, Ray and Barbara took the opportunity to pass on some in their winnings for their little ones and various relatives.

But it had been their generosity to Others outside their spouse and children device which might make headlines from the a long time that adopted.

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


PA A few wearing red and white Sheffield United shirts maintain champagne flutes bearing the Countrywide Lottery logo aloft. A football bearing the Sheffield United badge is in between their heads.PA
Barbara Wragg experienced labored to be a nurse in Sheffield for decades
Barbara, who died of sepsis in 2018 with the age of seventy seven, once publicly mentioned their winnings have been "far too much for 2 individuals".

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

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

Tens of hundreds was presented away to your clinic where Barbara experienced labored, and also 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 many years just after Allied Forces won a crucial victory there.

The couple have been still left touched by a a lot of the correspondence they got afterwards, which incorporated letters from widows of soldiers who had died around the battlefield.


A man in his eighties sits on a black couch inside of a family room. He's holding a black espresso mug. A lampshade is during the history.
Ray claims the lottery modified his and Barbara's lives, although not them as folks
Yet another act of philanthropy stands out in Ray's mind.

"We picked up the Sheffield Star newspaper a person evening, along with a youthful lad of 11 or 12 experienced saved his cash up to obtain 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 scarcely utilized and so identified as up the Star to make ตรวจ หวย ผล สลากกินแบ่ง รัฐบาล งวด contact with the boy's family members so they may give it to him.

"You can't buy the expression on his face," Ray states. "He was leaping up and down for Pleasure and riding up and down, as you'll if you have been A child."

The pair's charity work attained them a Specific trophy from Camelot in 2002, and Invites to Buckingham Palace and the Pride of Britain awards.

They rubbed shoulders with Richard Branson, Princess Diana's previous butler and the Coronation Avenue Forged, but Ainsley Harriott stands out in Ray's head as on the list of "nicest" stars the few met.


Sheffield United fan Ray continue to goes swimming at his community leisure centre three early mornings a week and he stays a Bramall Lane normal within the weekends.

He insists he's never had any trouble from individuals since that vast earn twenty five a long time in the past.

"All they have wanted to do when they us in the street is rub our shoulder for a little luck and thank us for what we have done for the kids.

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

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

"I used to be Functioning, Barbara was Operating, the youngsters ended up Doing work," he says. "We were being all appropriate.

"Like other families do, we saved up.

"It adjusted our lives although not us as folks.

"That is stood us in superior stead. I even now look at the price of a set of socks you realize!"

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