'WE RECEIVED THE LOTTERY BUT I EVEN NOW VERIFY THE PRICE OF SOCKS'

'We received the lottery but I even now Verify the price of socks'

'We received the lottery but I even now Verify the price of socks'

Blog Article

Winning a daily life-modifying amount of cash is really a dream harboured by a lot of, but what's existence like when that really occurs?

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

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

Offering a working commentary to her partner Ray, Individuals a few matching numbers about the pair's ticket swiftly turned "4", then "5" after which astoundingly, the magic "6".

In just half an hour, the pair learnt they had gained the £7.6m jackpot and daily life experienced improved forever.


Recalling that moment Nearly a quarter of the century on, Ray remembers: "I reported "you might 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 on the black couch inside of a front room. He is Keeping a brass-coloured trophy in the shape with the Nationwide Lottery logo
Ray Wragg and spouse Barbara received a Distinctive trophy from lottery organisers for their philanthropy

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

The pair sang 'Who wants to certainly be a millionaire' as they identified as their a few kids to tell them the news.

"50 percent one hour afterwards we rang Camelot and we learned we might won £seven.6m that night time," Ray suggests.

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

He was due to be again at Focus on a constructing web-site in south Wales at 08:00 GMT about the Monday, which would have required the then sixty two-yr-aged to go away residence for a 4-hour drive from the early hours of the dim Winter season early morning.

When Ray told him he had made a decision to retire, a stunned Dave responded by inquiring him tongue-in-cheek, "Have you ever won the lottery?!"

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

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

"I failed to know what to mention but I'd never ever have explained 'stuff your task' or nearly anything like that. I am not that kind of individual."

Though the construction industry inevitably turned "tiring" and concerned him travelling as much as one,000 miles each week to all 4 corners of the UK, Ray claims he enjoyed operate.

But the possibility of retirement for him and for Barbara, who had worked night time shifts with the Royal Hallamshire Medical center for 22 several years, was way too excellent to miss.

The very first thing Ray did with the winnings was buy a £52,000 white Vary Rover, even though the pair also went on the glamorous cruise.

Barbara's anxiety of traveling had Earlier limited them to domestic holidays.

"I feel we went to Torquay for about 20 years over the trot - all five of us," Ray claims.

Like most lottery winners, Ray and Barbara took the chance to move on some in their winnings to their small children and other kin.

But it absolutely was their generosity to other people outside their spouse and children unit which might make headlines inside the many years that adopted.

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


PA A pair dressed in purple and white Sheffield United shirts hold champagne flutes bearing the Nationwide Lottery symbol aloft. A football bearing the Sheffield United badge is in between their heads.PA
Barbara Wragg experienced labored being a nurse in Sheffield for decades
Barbara, who died of sepsis in 2018 with the age of seventy seven, when publicly reported their winnings were "far too much for two men and women".

"We experienced people today say 'does one not want to maintain it for yourselves?'" Ray suggests now.

"But we were in our sixties (at the time) and we made a great deal of individuals pleased."

Tens of thousands was specified absent on the hospital where Barbara experienced worked, in addition to towards the local children's hospital.

There was also £12,000 to permit Globe War Two veterans to return to Monte Cassino in Italy in 2004, sixty many years just after Allied Forces won a vital victory there.

The few were being remaining touched by a several of the correspondence they bought Later on, which included letters from widows of soldiers who experienced died over the battlefield.


A person in his eighties sits over a black couch in the front room. He is holding a black espresso mug. A lampshade is during the history.
Ray claims the lottery transformed his and Barbara's lives, although not them as persons
One more act of philanthropy stands out in Ray's brain.

"We picked up the Sheffield Star newspaper 1 night time, plus a young lad of 11 or twelve had saved his income up to purchase a motorcycle," he recollects.

"He'd gone in the park and these three lads had run off with it and still left him, the weak lad."

The Wraggs had a mountain bike they'd hardly made use of and so known as up the Star to generate หวย contact with the boy's family so they might give it to him.

"You can not buy the expression on his experience," Ray suggests. "He was jumping up and down for joy and Using up and down, as you should in the event you ended up A child."

The pair's charity work earned them a Particular trophy from Camelot in 2002, together with Invites to Buckingham Palace as well as Pleasure of Britain awards.

They rubbed shoulders with Richard Branson, Princess Diana's previous butler plus the Coronation Road cast, but Ainsley Harriott stands out in Ray's thoughts as among the "nicest" celebrities the pair satisfied.


Sheffield United enthusiast Ray still goes swimming at his area leisure centre three early mornings each week and he stays a Bramall Lane regular for the weekends.

He insists he is never ever experienced any bother from persons given that that vast gain 25 several years back.

"All they have wanted to do when they us in the street is rub our shoulder for some luck and thank us for what we've performed for the youngsters.

"We have had an amazing time and assisted a good deal of men and women," he smiles.

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

"I was working, Barbara was Doing the job, the children were Doing the job," he states. "We were all suitable.

"Like other families do, we saved up.

"It adjusted our lives but not us as people.

"That's stood us in very good stead. I still have a look at the cost of a set of socks you understand!"

Hear highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Appears, meet up with the most up-to-date episode of Appear North or inform us a story you think that we must be masking below.

Report this page