Winning a lifetime-switching sum of money is usually a dream harboured by several, but what is lifestyle like when that truly happens?

"Ray, we've got three quantities!"

Sat at your home with a Saturday evening, nurse Barbara Wragg experienced switched about the Television to get the Countrywide Lottery success.

Supplying a functioning commentary to her spouse Ray, Individuals a few matching quantities about the couple's ticket promptly became "4", then "5" and afterwards astoundingly, the magic "six".

Inside 50 percent an hour, the pair learnt they'd received the £7.6m jackpot and existence experienced modified for good.


Recalling that moment Practically 1 / 4 of the 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 person in his eighties sits over a black sofa in a very front room. He is Keeping a brass-coloured trophy in The form with the Nationwide Lottery emblem
Ray Wragg and spouse Barbara gained a Distinctive 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, when Barbara had a glass of wine.

The pair sang 'Who wants to be a millionaire' because they termed their three little ones to tell them the news.

"50 percent one hour later we rang Camelot and we discovered we would gained £7.6m that night," Ray claims.

Another get in touch with roofer Ray, from Sheffield, would make was to his manager, Dave, the next early morning.

He was as a consequence of be back at work on a setting up web-site in south Wales at 08:00 GMT within the Monday, which might have expected the then 62-12 months-aged to depart residence for your 4-hour drive from the early several hours of the dark winter morning.

When Ray told him he experienced made a decision to retire, a astonished Dave responded by inquiring him tongue-in-cheek, "Have you ever gained the lottery?!"

"Perfectly, Certainly I have," was Ray's straightforward reply.

Wraggs to riches
"I retired that Saturday evening in certain respects," Ray claims, recalling that weekend in January 2000.

"I didn't know what to say but I would never have claimed 'things your occupation' or anything like that. I'm not that sort of person."

Despite the fact that the development field at some point grew to become "tiring" and associated him travelling up to one,000 miles every week to all four corners of the UK, Ray states he savored work.

But the chance of retirement for him and for Barbara, who had labored evening shifts within the Royal Hallamshire Clinic for 22 several years, was also fantastic to overlook.

The first thing Ray did Along with the winnings was buy a £fifty two,000 white Range Rover, whilst the pair also went over a glamorous cruise.

Barbara's anxiety of traveling had Beforehand restricted them to domestic vacations.

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

Like most lottery winners, Ray and Barbara took the opportunity to move on some of their winnings to their little ones and also other kin.

But it was their generosity to Other individuals exterior their household unit which might make headlines during the decades that adopted.

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


PA A couple wearing red and white Sheffield United shirts maintain champagne flutes bearing the Countrywide Lottery emblem aloft. A soccer bearing the Sheffield United badge is between their heads.PA
Barbara Wragg experienced labored for a nurse in Sheffield for decades
Barbara, who died of sepsis in 2018 at the age of seventy seven, as soon as publicly explained their winnings were being "excessive for 2 people today".

"We experienced individuals say 'do you not want to help keep it for yourselves?'" Ray claims now.

"But we ended up inside our sixties (at enough time) and we designed lots of folks joyful."

Tens of hundreds was offered absent to your medical center exactly where Barbara experienced worked, as well as to your neighborhood kid's medical center.

There was also £twelve,000 to allow Earth War Two veterans to return to Monte Cassino in Italy in 2004, 60 decades just after Allied Forces won a vital victory there.

The pair had been still left touched by a some of the correspondence they acquired afterwards, which bundled letters from widows of troopers who experienced died on the battlefield.


A man in his eighties sits on a black couch inside a living room. He is Keeping a black espresso mug. A lampshade is in the track record.
Ray claims the lottery adjusted his and Barbara's life, although not them as men and women
One more act of philanthropy stands out in Ray's brain.

"We picked up the Sheffield Star newspaper a single night, and also a young lad of eleven or twelve had saved his revenue up to order a motorbike," he remembers.

"He'd absent in to the park and these a few lads experienced operate off with it and remaining him, the inadequate lad."

The Wraggs had a mountain bike they'd hardly utilized and so termed up the Star for making ruay contact with the boy's household so they could give it to him.

"You cannot purchase the expression on his deal with," Ray says. "He was jumping up and down for Pleasure and Driving up and down, as you should in case you were being a kid."

The couple's charity operate gained them a special trophy from Camelot in 2002, along with Invites to Buckingham Palace along with the Delight of Britain awards.

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


Sheffield United enthusiast Ray still goes swimming at his area leisure centre a few early mornings per week and he continues to be a Bramall Lane common with the weekends.

He insists he is under no circumstances had any trouble from men and women given that that massive get twenty five years ago.

"All they've planned to do if they us in the street is rub our shoulder for some luck and thank us for what we have done for the kids.

"We've experienced a fantastic time and helped a great deal of individuals," he smiles.

Ray states he and Barbara remembered their roots and would have remained satisfied folks even had they not won the lottery.

"I had been Operating, Barbara was Operating, the youngsters were being Performing," he states. "We were all right.

"Like other family members do, we saved up.

"It altered our life although not us as individuals.

"Which is stood us in excellent stead. I continue to have a look at the cost of a pair of socks you already know!"

Pay attention to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the newest episode of Glimpse North or inform us a story you think that we really should be masking below.