Winning a lifetime-changing amount of money can be a dream harboured by many, but what is lifestyle like when that actually happens?

"Ray, We have a few numbers!"

Sat in the home on the Saturday night, nurse Barbara Wragg had switched around the Television set to have the Countrywide Lottery success.

Supplying a jogging commentary to her spouse Ray, Individuals three matching quantities about the few's ticket swiftly became "four", then "5" and then astoundingly, the magic "6".

Within just half an hour, the pair learnt that they had won the £7.6m jackpot and existence experienced modified for good.


Recalling that moment Just about 1 / 4 of a century on, Ray remembers: "I claimed "you might be kidding me?!"

"We have been trapped for how to proceed and what to say. We were being just flabbergasted."

A man in his eighties sits over a black couch inside a front room. He's holding a brass-coloured trophy in the shape from the National Lottery symbol
Ray Wragg and wife Barbara obtained a special trophy from lottery organisers for his or her philanthropy

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

The pair sang 'Who wants to be considered a millionaire' since they identified as their 3 youngsters to inform them the news.

"Half one hour later we rang Camelot and we found out we would received £seven.6m that night time," Ray suggests.

The next phone roofer Ray, from Sheffield, would make was to his manager, Dave, the next morning.

He was due to be back at Focus on a building site in south Wales at 08:00 GMT on the Monday, which might have expected the then sixty two-year-aged to go away property for your four-hour travel during the early several hours of a dim Winter season morning.

When Ray advised him he had made a decision to retire, a stunned Dave responded by inquiring him tongue-in-cheek, "have you gained the lottery?!"

"Perfectly, Indeed I've," was Ray's sincere reply.

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

"I didn't determine what to convey but I'd in no way have claimed 'things your position' or anything at all like that. I am not that kind of individual."

Despite the fact that the construction market finally grew to become "tiring" and concerned him travelling around 1,000 miles every week to all 4 corners of the UK, Ray suggests he relished get the job done.

But the chance of retirement for him and for Barbara, who experienced labored evening shifts at the Royal Hallamshire Medical center for 22 many years, was much too fantastic to overlook.

The very first thing Ray did Together with the winnings was purchase a £fifty two,000 white Selection Rover, though the couple also went on the glamorous cruise.

Barbara's anxiety of traveling experienced previously restricted them to domestic vacations.

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

Like most lottery winners, Ray and Barbara took the chance to move on some of their winnings to their little ones as well as other family.

But it was their generosity to other people outside the house their family members device which would make headlines within the many years that adopted.

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


PA A pair dressed in red and white Sheffield United shirts maintain champagne flutes bearing the Countrywide Lottery brand aloft. A soccer bearing the Sheffield United badge is in between their heads.PA
Barbara Wragg had labored as a nurse in Sheffield for many years
Barbara, who died of sepsis in 2018 at the age of 77, the moment publicly said 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 inside our sixties (at some time) and we built a lot of folks delighted."

Tens of countless numbers was provided absent to your medical center exactly where Barbara experienced worked, as well as to your neighborhood kid's clinic.

There was also £twelve,000 to permit Earth War Two veterans to return to Monte Cassino in Italy in 2004, 60 several years following Allied Forces gained an important victory there.

The couple ended up left touched by a many of the correspondence they received afterwards, which bundled letters from widows of troopers who experienced died within the battlefield.


A man in his eighties sits on the black couch inside of a family room. He's Keeping a black espresso mug. A lampshade is during the history.
Ray suggests the lottery changed his and Barbara's life, but not them as folks
A different act of philanthropy stands out in Ray's head.

"We picked up the Sheffield Star newspaper just one night, along with a youthful lad of 11 or twelve had saved his revenue up to acquire a motorcycle," he recollects.

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

The Wraggs experienced a mountain bike they'd scarcely used and so termed up the Star for making หวย connection with the boy's relatives so they might give it to him.

"You can't purchase the expression on his deal with," Ray says. "He was jumping up and down for Pleasure and riding up and down, as you'd in the event you were being a kid."

The few's charity work attained them a Exclusive trophy from Camelot in 2002, along with invitations to Buckingham Palace plus the Pleasure of Britain awards.

They rubbed shoulders with Richard Branson, Princess Diana's former butler as well as the Coronation Avenue Forged, but Ainsley Harriott stands out in Ray's mind as one of many "nicest" famous people the few fulfilled.


Sheffield United admirer Ray however goes swimming at his community leisure centre 3 early mornings a week and he continues to be a Bramall Lane standard within the weekends.

He insists he's never experienced any hassle from folks given that that massive acquire twenty five a long time back.

"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 performed for the kids.

"We've experienced a fantastic time and assisted a good deal of men and women," he smiles.

Ray claims he and Barbara remembered their roots and might have remained delighted people today even experienced they not gained the lottery.

"I used to be Doing work, Barbara was Doing work, the youngsters ended up Doing the job," he claims. "We have been all proper.

"Like other families do, we saved up.

"It adjusted our lives although not us as persons.

"That is stood us in excellent stead. I still check out the price of a pair of socks you know!"

Hear highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Appears, meet up with the latest episode of Seem North or convey to us a Tale you think we needs to be covering listed here.