Profitable a life-shifting amount of cash is a aspiration harboured by lots of, but what exactly is lifestyle like when that really transpires?

"Ray, We have got three quantities!"

Sat in your own home on a Saturday evening, nurse Barbara Wragg experienced switched about the TV to find the National Lottery results.

Giving a working commentary to her spouse Ray, Those people a few matching numbers on the pair's ticket promptly grew to become "four", then "5" and then astoundingly, the magic "6".

In 50 % an hour or so, the pair learnt that they had gained the £seven.6m jackpot and lifestyle had altered eternally.


Recalling that moment Pretty much a quarter of a century on, Ray remembers: "I reported "you are kidding me?!"

"We were being stuck for what to do and what to convey. We had been just flabbergasted."

A person in his eighties sits with a black sofa inside of a living room. He is holding a brass-coloured trophy in the shape with the Countrywide Lottery symbol
Ray Wragg and spouse Barbara gained a special trophy from lottery organisers for his or her philanthropy

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

The pair sang 'Who wants to be described as a millionaire' as they called their three kids to inform them the information.

"Fifty percent an hour or so later we rang Camelot and we discovered we might received £7.6m that night," Ray claims.

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

He was as a result of be back again at work on a making web-site in south Wales at 08:00 GMT over the Monday, which might have demanded the then sixty two-yr-outdated to go away household for a four-hour drive in the early several hours of a dark winter morning.

When Ray explained to him he experienced chose to retire, a shocked Dave responded by asking him tongue-in-cheek, "Have you ever won the lottery?!"

"Nicely, yes I've," was Ray's truthful reply.

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

"I did not know very well what to mention but I might under no circumstances have mentioned 'stuff your job' or everything like that. I am not that kind of human being."

Though the development field at some point turned "tiring" and concerned him travelling nearly one,000 miles every week to all four corners of the united kingdom, Ray says he appreciated operate.

But the prospect of retirement for him and for Barbara, who experienced worked night time shifts at the Royal Hallamshire Healthcare facility for 22 yrs, was too great to pass up.

The very first thing Ray did Using the winnings was purchase a £52,000 white Variety Rover, whilst the few also went with a glamorous cruise.

Barbara's anxiety of flying had Earlier restricted them to domestic vacations.

"I do think we went to Torquay for around twenty years about the trot - all 5 of us," Ray says.

Like most lottery winners, Ray and Barbara took the chance to go on some of their winnings to their young children and also other relatives.

But it was their generosity to other people outdoors their family unit which might make headlines in the many years that followed.

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


PA A pair dressed in red and white Sheffield United shirts keep champagne flutes bearing the Countrywide Lottery emblem aloft. A soccer bearing the Sheffield United badge is in between their heads.PA
Barbara Wragg experienced worked for a nurse in Sheffield for decades
Barbara, who died of sepsis in 2018 in the age of seventy seven, as soon as publicly claimed their winnings have been "an excessive amount of for two people".

"We had people say 'would you not want to help keep it for yourselves?'" Ray claims now.

"But we were in our sixties (at the time) and we created quite a bit of people satisfied."

Tens of countless numbers was presented away on the clinic in which Barbara had worked, and also on the regional children's healthcare facility.

There was also £12,000 to permit Planet War Two veterans to return to Monte Cassino in Italy in 2004, 60 decades immediately after Allied Forces won a vital victory there.

The pair have been remaining touched by a a lot of the correspondence they received afterwards, which involved letters from widows of troopers who experienced died on the battlefield.


A man in his eighties sits on a black sofa in the family room. He's Keeping a black espresso mug. A lampshade is in the track record.
Ray says the lottery modified his and Barbara's lives, but not them as folks
One more act of philanthropy stands out in Ray's head.

"We picked up the Sheffield Star newspaper a single evening, plus a younger lad of eleven or twelve had saved his funds up to order a motorcycle," he recalls.

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

The Wraggs experienced a mountain bicycle they'd hardly utilized and so termed up the Star to generate หวย วัน นี้ connection with the boy's relatives so they could give it to him.

"You can not buy the expression on his facial area," Ray states. "He was leaping up and down for Pleasure and Driving up and down, as you'd probably if you have been A child."

The pair's charity work earned them a Exclusive trophy from Camelot in 2002, as well as invitations to Buckingham Palace as well as the Satisfaction of Britain awards.

They rubbed shoulders with Richard Branson, Princess Diana's former butler along with the Coronation Road cast, but Ainsley Harriott stands out in Ray's thoughts as one of many "nicest" celebs the pair achieved.


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

He insists he's by no means experienced any trouble from persons considering that that huge acquire twenty five many years in the past.

"All they've wanted to do whenever they us in the road is rub our shoulder for a little bit of luck and thank us for what we've performed for the youngsters.

"We have experienced an excellent time and served a lot of people," he smiles.

Ray says he and Barbara remembered their roots and would've remained joyful people even experienced they not gained the lottery.

"I used to be Functioning, Barbara was Operating, the kids were being Performing," he states. "We were being all suitable.

"Like other households do, we saved up.

"It changed our lives although not us as individuals.

"Which is stood us in excellent stead. I still have a look at the cost of a set of socks you recognize!"

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