Training | 2009.12.18
Lottery winners at Christmas
A year ago, they were like the rest of us: pushing the boat out, and worrying a bit about paying for it. Then their numbers came up… So how will they be celebrating this year?
Ted Newton, 69, a retired foreman, and his wife Marilyn, 65, from Amersham, won £7.9m in July
Ted says: "I don\'t have a clue what to get anyone for Christmas this year. Our children, Darren, Stephen and Sarah, have all left home, and we shared the money between us, so there\'s nothing they need, and our grandchildren have everything they could possibly want. Darren\'s got a new house, so we\'re getting him a patio cleaner, but the others... you have to get your thinking cap on.
"We\'ve been doing the lottery since it started and there have been other times that I\'ve said, \'We\'ve won!\' and when we looked closely, we hadn\'t. So Marilyn didn\'t believe me. It wasn\'t until the lady from Camelot came over that we knew exactly how much we\'d won. We told the children to come round: we said it wasn\'t bad news, we just needed to talk to them. After we found out, we were all in shock. We had dinner, but nobody was hungry.
"We have treated ourselves since then. I went out and bought a Land Rover Discovery – I\'ve always wanted one, and now when we pull the caravan, we don\'t even know it\'s there. We\'ve also bought a house for the family to share, near Canterbury . It\'s only an hour away, we can go there whenever we like, and it\'s big enough for everyone.
"We\'ll all be together at Christmas. We\'ll start the meal about 2pm and we\'ll still be sitting there at 6pm. This year I suppose we\'ll be able to splash out on food and drink, but I\'m not a great lover of champagne – I prefer Asti Spumante . I\'ll be on the shandies, though, because I\'ll be driving."
Marilyn says: "I\'ve always wanted to go into a shop, see something I like and just buy it, without looking at the price. So when we won, I went to a boutique nearby and picked out a black and white skirt suit for the press conference . I didn\'t even look at how much it was.
"We\'ll probably be in the new house over Christmas because we\'re having our place done up. It\'s got lots of grounds and is only 12 miles from the sea, so you can just go there and lose yourself. We bought it as somewhere the children can go with their children as well. I think they\'ll all love it.
"The main difference this year will be that when we all get together, we\'ll be a little bit more relaxed, because nobody\'s got any money problems any more. You always worry that you need to save your money for your children, but now we know they\'re set up for life, we can enjoy ourselves. We\'ve got three lovely holidays lined up for next year: we\'re going on a cruise to see the northern lights , another one to Iceland , and we\'re going by train to see the Italian lakes .
"I\'ve done a bit of Christmas shopping on the internet, but it\'s hard to know what to get the family. We did buy an expensive Christmas pudding to give to our son, and that was something we\'d never have dreamed of buying before. But the best thing is being able to help other people – charities, and our friends and neighbours, who we\'ve known for years. We can give them the odd present and splash out a bit more, and that\'s a nice feeling."
Trina Myatt, 38, a financial controller, and her husband Mark, 39, a property developer, from Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, won £1m last New Year\'s Eve
Mark says: "It was New Year\'s Day, and we were at a family gathering at Trina\'s brother\'s house, having that conversation most people have: what\'s the ideal amount to win on the lottery? Someone was saying, I wouldn\'t want to win £45m, because you\'d have to be in hiding for the rest of your life, but a million, that would be about right. And I realised we hadn\'t checked our numbers – we do the same ones every week. As they were read out, Trina was saying, \'We\'ve got that one, we\'ve got that one.\' I thought she was joking. We got to the sixth number, and she wasn\'t sure.
"She was sitting there quietly and then she said, \'I\'m going to pop home and just see what the last number on our ticket was, otherwise I won\'t enjoy the evening.\' She was gone for about 40 minutes and then she opened the door with two bottles of champagne. We\'d got the numbers! It was as if somebody had punched me in the stomach.
"I\'ve always done the lottery, and I\'ve always known I would win one day. I\'ve got a nine-year-old son, Alexander, from a previous marriage and ever since I split up with his mother, I\'ve said to him, \'Don\'t worry, we\'ll win the lottery, and when we do, I\'ll buy you a toy shop.\' So of course the first thing Alexander said when we told him was, \'Where\'s my toy shop?\' Our younger son, Oliver, is four, and he didn\'t really understand. Now, whenever the lottery\'s on, he\'ll ask, \'Did you win again?\' Instead of the toy shop, we took them both to ToysRUs and said, \'Anything you want.\' Alexander chose a huge Lego Deathstar and Oliver went for a Thomas the Tank Engine train track.
"We\'d planned to buy a new car this year, so we went down to the Mercedes dealership – and bought two! We were also planning a trip with the boys to Euro Disney , but after the win we were able to stay in the Disney castle itself.
"We\'re going to Center Parcs for a few days in the run-up to Christmas, to see Santa and spend time unwinding as a family, instead of shooting around the shops. We could get the boys pretty much anything they want, but we\'ve tried to rein it in. We\'ve got them some DVDs and games: Oliver really likes his Nintendo Wii , so we\'ve got him a few games for that, and one of the little handheld games consoles as well. And Alexander has just started guitar lessons, so I\'ve got him a guitar, and some Lego. For Trina, I\'m going to pop to the Gucci shop – I got her a handbag for our wedding anniversary and I think she\'s got her eye on a bigger one.
"It\'s nice to be able to get people presents they actually want this year, but it\'s a strange feeling because we\'ve always been careful with money. Now, we go to Westfield shopping centre and we can walk into the Hugo Boss es or the Guccis or the Versace s and think, I quite like that shirt, I could have one in each colour. You end up coming back with nothing. You just think, can you really justify it?
"We always go overboard at Christmas, though. We have an open house: last year I cooked for 20 people. I like the old Victorian-style Christmas dinner. This year we\'ll have a couple of pheasants, some ham, a turkey – and definitely a few bottles of champagne."
Trina says: "When I first realised we\'d won, I actually felt quite worried. I was driving back to my brother\'s house thinking, \'We\'ve had a nice life. How is this money going to change us?\' I stopped at the corner shop to pick up some champagne and I was shaking. When I got to the counter, the girl said, \'Are you sure? They\'re £25 each, you know.\' And I said, \'It\'s all right, I think I\'ve just won a million pounds on the lottery!\' She was the first person I told.
"We have bought some lovely clothes and cars, and I\'ve got some nice jewellery, but I\'m a bit tight really. Even now, I think twice about buying things. It\'s more about being able to treat the boys, and look after friends and family – they\'ve had some nice holidays and we\'ve helped out people where we can.
"We had a big party after we won. There were about 60 people at the house, and a bouncy castle in the back garden. We had massive three-foot balloons made up with the winning numbers on and the champagne was flowing. But you feel a bit embarrassed sometimes; you don\'t want to go overboard and make people feel awkward.
"The biggest change for me has been to my working hours, because it has allowed me to take a step down at the IT firm where I work. I\'m doing 25 hours a week now, instead of 50 or 60, so I can drop Oliver at school and pick him up. Normally in the run-up to Christmas, I\'d be worrying about year-end audits. This year, I\'ll be at Center Parcs doing the pony rides and taking the boys to have breakfast with Santa."
Tony Dugard, 45, a fire risk assessor for manufacturing company Corus , and his partner Julie Clark, 44, a secretary at a local school, from Grimsby, won £550,000 as part of a syndicate that won £2.2m in July
Tony says: "I\'m flying my brother and his family over from Australia for Christmas; his children have never been to England. I\'ve got sisters and a brother who have never met them, so it\'s the first year we\'ll all be together. We\'ll be in our new place by then: it\'s a big Edwardian house in a park in my home town, sunny Grimsby. It will be great to have a huge dining room table and get all the family around it.
"The syndicate members are talking about putting on a Christmas buffet at work, too. Everyone there has been great about our win – I don\'t think there\'s been a single jealous or bitter comment. Even now, you can still get congratulations shouted out across a mill floor or as you\'re walking through a workshop.
"There were eight of us in the syndicate. I was the manager and, apart from Julie, the others all work at Corus: we\'ve got security officers, gatehouse men and maintenance engineers. I didn\'t think for a moment that we\'d won the jackpot. When I realised, I did an Irish jig all around the living room. You go through crazy emotions. I started ringing around the syndicate members, but they thought I was having them on: one of them put the phone down on me twice. Each person in the syndicate won £275,000, but luckily for me, one of them was my partner, so we got double bubble.
"Working for Corus, we\'re all in danger of losing our jobs at any moment, so everyone was over the moon. None of us has handed in our notice – we\'re all doing exactly what we did the day we won – but we often meet for coffee on a Monday morning, and someone\'s usually been out and spoiled themselves, or they\'re just about to complete on a new house. One of the guys is on his fifth car.
"Within seven days, I\'d gone out and bought a Mercedes C200 sport. Julie took the girls [Charlotte, 18, and Jessica, 16] out to Hull for the day and came back with 12 bags from Primark. You don\'t have to worry about, \'Can we afford it?\' any more.
"We\'ve been invited to a Christmas fancy dress party this year and I\'m going to go as Scrooge . I\'m taking a real turkey along with me! And I\'ll be splashing out on presents, too. I\'m going to get a nice piece of jewellery for Julie. That\'s the best part of winning: you don\'t have to spend time worrying about the cost of things. Charlotte\'s off to university, but we don\'t have to be concerned about her getting into debt now. And Jessica wants a helicopter to go to her school prom – apparently limousines are so last year."
Julie says: "It\'s great being able to take friends out for a meal, or say, no, I\'ll get this round, and not have to worry about it – especially with Christmas coming up.
"I think winning the lottery sent me a bit loopy to begin with. For a few weeks after, my driving was appalling and I kept crying. Tony went out and bought himself a new car and I thought, there\'s no point in me getting one, I don\'t even know what I want. The first thing I bought was a handbag from Matalan , of all places.
"We\'ve invested half the money, and we have bought a house, which we would never have been able to afford before. I\'ve been picking up bits for the girls: Charlotte wants a phone for Christmas, and Jessica\'s still in the process of making a list. I\'ve always been good with money, and have saved, but now if we see something in a shop, we can just buy it without having to think about where the money\'s coming from."
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/dec/19/christmas-lottery-winners
