Profitable a lifetime-changing amount of cash can be a aspiration harboured by several, but what on earth is daily life like when that actually comes about?

"Ray, we've got three figures!"

Sat in your house on the Saturday evening, nurse Barbara Wragg had switched over the Television to obtain the National Lottery final results.

Giving a running commentary to her husband Ray, Individuals 3 matching numbers over the few's ticket quickly grew to become "4", then "five" and after that astoundingly, the magic "6".

Inside 50 percent an hour, the pair learnt they had received the £seven.6m jackpot and everyday living had improved eternally.


Recalling that instant Nearly a quarter of a century on, Ray remembers: "I explained "you might be kidding me?!"

"We had been stuck for what to do and what to say. We have been just flabbergasted."

A man in his eighties sits over a black sofa in the front room. He is holding a brass-coloured trophy in The form in the National Lottery symbol
Ray Wragg and wife Barbara obtained a special trophy from lottery organisers for their philanthropy

Ray, who turns 87 on New 12 months's Day, cracked open a can of Guinness, while Barbara experienced a glass of wine.

The pair sang 'Who would like to be described as a millionaire' as they identified as their three little ones to inform them the news.

"Fifty percent an hour or so afterwards we rang Camelot and we learned we'd won £7.6m that evening," Ray claims.

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

He was on account of be back again at work on a constructing web-site in south Wales at 08:00 GMT to the Monday, which would have necessary the then 62-calendar year-outdated to go away house for a 4-hour generate in the early several hours of a darkish winter early morning.

When Ray informed him he experienced decided to retire, a amazed Dave responded by asking him tongue-in-cheek, "have you received the lottery?!"

"Nicely, Of course I have," was Ray's trustworthy reply.

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

"I did not know what to say but I'd never ever have reported 'things your job' or anything at all like that. I'm not that sort of human being."

Although the development field eventually turned "tiring" and included him travelling approximately 1,000 miles every week to all four corners of the united kingdom, Ray claims he liked operate.

But the chance of retirement for him and for Barbara, who experienced worked night time shifts with the Royal Hallamshire Hospital for 22 decades, was way too great to miss out on.

The very first thing Ray did Together with the winnings was purchase a £52,000 white Assortment Rover, when the couple also went on the glamorous cruise.

Barbara's anxiety of traveling experienced Beforehand limited them to domestic holiday seasons.

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

Like most lottery winners, Ray and Barbara took the opportunity to go on some in their winnings for their young children as well as other family members.

But it was their generosity to Other individuals exterior their household unit which might make headlines while in the a long time that adopted.

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


PA A pair dressed in pink and white Sheffield United shirts hold champagne flutes bearing the Countrywide Lottery logo aloft. A football bearing the Sheffield United badge is between their heads.PA
Barbara Wragg experienced worked being a nurse in Sheffield for many years
Barbara, who died of sepsis in 2018 on the age of seventy seven, at the time publicly mentioned their winnings ended up "an excessive amount of for two men and women".

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

"But we were being inside our sixties (at enough time) and we built lots of folks delighted."

Tens of countless numbers was presented away to the healthcare facility the place Barbara had labored, along with to the area children's healthcare facility.

There was also £12,000 to permit World War Two veterans to return to Monte Cassino in Italy in 2004, 60 decades soon after Allied Forces received a crucial victory there.

The few were being left touched by a several of the correspondence they bought afterwards, which incorporated letters from widows of soldiers who had died about the battlefield.


A person in his eighties sits over a black couch in a very front room. He's holding a black coffee mug. A lampshade is within the background.
Ray says the lottery changed his and Barbara's life, but not them as folks
Yet another act of philanthropy stands out in Ray's thoughts.

"We picked up the Sheffield Star newspaper 1 night time, and also a young lad of eleven or 12 experienced saved his cash up to buy a motorcycle," he recollects.

"He'd absent into your park and these three lads had operate off with it and left him, the very poor lad."

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

"You can't buy the expression on his encounter," Ray claims. "He was leaping up and down for joy and riding up and down, as you should when you were a kid."

The few's charity do the job earned them a Specific trophy from Camelot in 2002, as well as invitations to Buckingham Palace as well as the Delight of Britain awards.

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


Sheffield United admirer Ray nevertheless goes swimming at his neighborhood leisure centre three early mornings each week and he stays a Bramall Lane typical at the weekends.

He insists he is under no circumstances had any trouble from people today due to the fact that huge gain 25 years in the past.

"All they've planned to do if they us in the street is rub our shoulder for a bit of luck and thank us for what we've finished for the kids.

"We've had an excellent time and served quite a bit of people," he smiles.

Ray states he and Barbara remembered their roots and might have remained delighted people even experienced they not won the lottery.

"I had been Doing work, Barbara was Doing work, the children had been working," he suggests. "We have been all correct.

"Like other people do, we saved up.

"It transformed our life but not us as folks.

"That's stood us in superior stead. I however examine the cost of a set of socks you already know!"

Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Seems, meet up with the most up-to-date episode of Search North or notify us a Tale you think that we need to be masking here.