Profitable a lifestyle-switching amount of money can be a aspiration harboured by a lot of, but what is lifestyle like when that truly comes about?

"Ray, We have three numbers!"

Sat at your home on a Saturday evening, nurse Barbara Wragg had switched over the Tv set to get the Countrywide Lottery benefits.

Giving a jogging commentary to her husband Ray, All those three matching numbers to the couple's ticket speedily turned "4", then "five" then astoundingly, the magic "6".

Within half an hour, the pair learnt they'd gained the £7.6m jackpot and lifetime experienced improved forever.


Recalling that instant almost 1 / 4 of the century on, Ray remembers: "I claimed "you happen to be kidding me?!"

"We ended up stuck for what to do and what to convey. We ended up just flabbergasted."

A man in his eighties sits on a black couch within a living room. He's holding a brass-coloured trophy in The form on the National Lottery brand
Ray Wragg and wife 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 on we rang Camelot and we discovered we would gained £seven.6m that evening," Ray claims.

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

He was as a consequence of be again at Focus on a constructing internet site in south Wales at 08:00 GMT within the Monday, which would have required the then sixty two-yr-aged to go away house for a 4-hour drive during the early hrs of the dark Winter season early morning.

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

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

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

"I failed to understand what to mention but I'd in no way have reported 'things your job' or just about anything like that. I am not that sort of individual."

Despite the fact that the development field ultimately grew to become "tiring" and concerned him travelling around 1,000 miles each week to all 4 corners of the united kingdom, Ray claims he savored get the job done.

But the possibility of retirement for him and for Barbara, who had worked evening shifts with the Royal Hallamshire Hospital for 22 decades, was way too great to miss out on.

The first thing Ray did While using the winnings was buy a £52,000 white Selection Rover, while the couple also went on a glamorous cruise.

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

"I think we went to Torquay for about twenty years on 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 together with other kinfolk.

But it had been their generosity to Other individuals exterior their household device which would make headlines in the decades that followed.

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


PA A pair dressed in crimson and white Sheffield United shirts keep champagne flutes bearing the Countrywide Lottery emblem 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 mentioned their winnings ended up "too much for 2 people".

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

"But we have been in our sixties (at the time) and we made lots of men and women satisfied."

Tens of thousands was given absent for the healthcare facility wherever Barbara had worked, as well as to your neighborhood kid's hospital.

There was also £12,000 to allow Environment War Two veterans to return to Monte Cassino in Italy in 2004, 60 several years after Allied Forces won a vital victory there.

The few ended up remaining touched by a some of the correspondence they received afterwards, which incorporated letters from widows of soldiers who had died on the battlefield.


A man in his eighties sits with a black couch in a very front room. He is Keeping a black espresso mug. A lampshade is from the track record.
Ray says the lottery changed his and Barbara's life, but not them as people
A further act of philanthropy stands out in Ray's brain.

"We picked up the Sheffield Star newspaper 1 night time, plus a youthful lad of 11 or twelve experienced saved his funds up to obtain a bike," he remembers.

"He'd long gone into the park and these 3 lads experienced operate off with it and remaining him, the bad lad."

The Wraggs had a mountain bike they'd hardly applied and so known as up the Star to produce หวย ลาว ออก วัน นี้ สด contact with the boy's relatives so they could give it to him.

"You cannot purchase the expression on his confront," Ray claims. "He was leaping up and down for joy and Using up and down, as you would probably in the event you have been A child."

The few's charity do the job earned them a Particular trophy from Camelot in 2002, together with Invites to Buckingham Palace plus the 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 fulfilled.


Sheffield United enthusiast Ray still goes swimming at his area leisure centre 3 early mornings a week and he stays a Bramall Lane normal within the weekends.

He insists he's hardly ever had any hassle from individuals due to the fact that huge acquire twenty five years ago.

"All they've planned to do should they us in the road is rub our shoulder for a little bit of luck and thank us for what we've completed for the children.

"We've had an amazing time and assisted a good deal of individuals," he smiles.

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

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

"Like other people do, we saved up.

"It modified our life but not us as individuals.

"Which is stood us in excellent stead. I continue to examine the cost of a set of socks you realize!"

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