Winning a daily life-switching sum of money is a desire harboured by many, but what exactly is life like when that really happens?

"Ray, we've got 3 figures!"

Sat at your home on the Saturday evening, nurse Barbara Wragg had switched to the TV to have the Countrywide Lottery effects.

Supplying a running commentary to her partner Ray, those a few matching figures within the pair's ticket promptly became "4", then "five" and then astoundingly, the magic "six".

Within 50 percent an hour, the pair learnt they'd won the £7.6m jackpot and life had improved endlessly.


Recalling that second Pretty much a quarter of a century on, Ray remembers: "I said "you're kidding me?!"

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

A man in his eighties sits on a black couch inside a front room. He's Keeping a brass-coloured trophy in The form with the Countrywide Lottery symbol
Ray Wragg and spouse Barbara gained a Exclusive trophy from lottery organisers for their philanthropy

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

The pair sang 'Who wants to be a millionaire' since they called their a few small children to tell them the information.

"Fifty percent an hour later on we rang Camelot and we learned we'd received £7.6m that night time," Ray claims.

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

He was because of be again at work on a making website in south Wales at 08:00 GMT about the Monday, which might have needed the then 62-12 months-old to go away home for your 4-hour push during the early several hours of the dim winter morning.

When Ray informed him he had decided to retire, a astonished Dave responded by inquiring him tongue-in-cheek, "have you won the lottery?!"

"Effectively, Sure I've," was Ray's trustworthy reply.

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

"I failed to determine what to say but I'd under no circumstances have said 'stuff your job' or anything like that. I'm not that sort of particular person."

Although the construction sector inevitably became "tiring" and included him travelling nearly one,000 miles every week to all 4 corners of the united kingdom, Ray says he liked do the job.

But the chance of retirement for him and for Barbara, who had labored evening shifts for the Royal Hallamshire Hospital for 22 several years, was far too superior to miss out on.

The very first thing Ray did with the winnings was purchase a £52,000 white Variety Rover, while the few also went with a glamorous cruise.

Barbara's anxiety of traveling had previously restricted them to domestic holiday seasons.

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

Like most lottery winners, Ray and Barbara took the opportunity to pass on some of their winnings for their little ones and other relations.

But it was their generosity to other people outside their loved ones unit which would make headlines while in the decades that adopted.

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


PA A couple dressed in pink and white Sheffield United shirts maintain champagne flutes bearing the National Lottery symbol aloft. A football bearing the Sheffield United badge is between their heads.PA
Barbara Wragg had labored for a nurse in Sheffield for decades
Barbara, who died of sepsis in 2018 at the age of 77, as soon as publicly claimed their winnings had been "an excessive amount of for 2 people".

"We had persons say 'does one not want to maintain it for yourselves?'" Ray says now.

"But we have been inside our sixties (at some time) and we manufactured a whole lot of folks pleased."

Tens of 1000's was specified absent for the healthcare facility in which Barbara had worked, along with on the regional children's hospital.

There was also £twelve,000 to allow Planet War Two veterans to return to Monte Cassino in Italy in 2004, 60 many years following Allied Forces received an important victory there.

The pair were still left touched by a a few of the correspondence they bought afterwards, which incorporated letters from widows of troopers who had died to the battlefield.


A person in his eighties sits on the black couch in the living room. He is holding a black espresso mug. A lampshade is within the qualifications.
Ray suggests the lottery modified his and Barbara's life, but not them as persons
Another act of philanthropy stands out in Ray's thoughts.

"We picked up the Sheffield Star newspaper a single night, as well as a younger lad of 11 or 12 experienced saved his cash up to order a bike," he recalls.

"He'd long gone to the park and these three lads experienced run off with it and left him, the poor lad."

The Wraggs experienced a mountain bicycle they'd hardly used and so identified as up the Star for making ตรวจ หวย ผล สลากกินแบ่ง รัฐบาล งวด connection with the boy's spouse and children so they may give it to him.

"You cannot purchase the expression on his confront," Ray says. "He was leaping up and down for joy and Driving up and down, as you would probably for those who ended up a kid."

The pair's charity perform gained them a Unique trophy from Camelot in 2002, together with Invites to Buckingham Palace as well as the Satisfaction of Britain awards.

They rubbed shoulders with Richard Branson, Princess Diana's former butler as well as the Coronation Road Solid, but Ainsley Harriott stands out in Ray's head as one of the "nicest" celebs the couple met.


Sheffield United enthusiast Ray nevertheless goes swimming at his neighborhood leisure centre three early mornings a week and he continues to be a Bramall Lane typical in the weekends.

He insists he is under no circumstances had any hassle from folks because that vast win 25 decades ago.

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

"We have experienced an excellent time and helped a great deal of individuals," he smiles.

Ray states he and Barbara remembered their roots and might have remained content men and women even had they not won the lottery.

"I was working, Barbara was Doing the job, the youngsters have been Operating," he suggests. "We have been all correct.

"Like other people do, we saved up.

"It transformed our life but not us as people.

"Which is stood us in very good stead. I nonetheless evaluate the price of a set of socks you realize!"

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