EuroMillions: Here are some of the National Lottery Winners from across Yorkshire
Camelot's senior winners' advisor at The National Lottery Andy Carter, said: "This is absolutely incredible news. Last night saw history made with the biggest ever National Lottery prize won by a single UK ticket-holder, and we're ecstatic that we've now received a claim."
Winners Joe and Jess Thwaite are from Gloucester and won from a Lucky Dip ticket, but we wanted to know how Yorkshire has fared over the years since the Lottery began in 1994.
By October 2015, 356 Yorkshire people had been made millionaires and together had earned one billion, with September the same year marking the 4000th lottery winner nationwide.
The data available, up until 2019 which was the National Lottery’s 25th anniversary, shows that there have been 504 winners of £1 million+ and 3,7777 winners of £50k+ here in Yorkshire.
Where do the Lottery Winners from our region come from?
North Yorkshire
Harrogate neighbours shared a £240,000 lottery win in 2021.
A group of eight neighbours in Harrogate won a cash prize of £30,000 each thanks to their postcode.
The windfall came after HG3 2TZ was announced as a winner with The People’s Postcode Lottery on Thursday, January 14.
The People's Postcode Lottery is a subscription lottery which costs £10 per month to play. People play with their chosen postcode and are automatically entered into all draws.
At least 33 per cent of the ticket price goes to a worthy cause and players of the People’s Postcode Lottery have raised over £750million to date for charities and organisations.
Amongst the winners were father and son Bill and Martin Barnett who both live on Bramham Drive, Harrogate.
They learned of the win on video calls with People’s Postcode Lottery ambassador Jeff Brazier.
Bill (67), who was joined on the call by his wife Marie, was quick to respond when the prize amount was revealed. He said: “Wow! Thank you very much. Lovely!”
Leeds born Alex Best won a whopping £1m thanks to the National Lottery back in 2018.
After paying off his student loan from University of Bolton, buying a house and purchasing his first car, Alex set about making his career dreams come true by using the money to pursue work in the music industry.
Best took a £10-an-hour job at Flamingo Land theme park, North Yorkshire to gain experience in show production, before moving on to start his own business as a sound engineer a year later.
Speaking on his career ambitions, Alex told the National Lottery: “I love going to music festivals and gigs and my degree has helped me realise it’s what I want to do as a career. It’s what I love doing, hopefully I can go on tours with big music stars or work at festivals like Glastonbury.”
South Yorkshire
Lottery winner Trish Emson of Wath won £1.7 million in October 2003 but vowed to keep her feet on the ground - in 2015 she was working as a dinner assistant in her son’s Benjamin's school.
And in 2007, lucky checkout assistant Karen Child, from Derbyshire, cashed in a £8.4m prize.
Clowne-based Child, who won millions on the National Lottery in 2007, formed her own charity called The Child Foundation which supports children and families who have encountered illness or difficulties in their life.
South Yorkshire is home to one of the luckiest cities, Sheffield, in Britain when it comes to bagging the jackpot, with at least 70 new millionaires stepping forward since 1994 in the Steel City alone.
The best-known winners from South Yorkshire are philanthropic couple Ray and Barbara Wragg, who won £7.6million in 2000 and gave away more than £5m of it to friends, family and charities.
They also quit their jobs straight away, Ray’s as a supervisor at a construction firm and Barbara’s as a night shift worker at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital.
Mr Wragg recounted what it was like to break the news to his boss the day after his win in 2000, saying: “When I told him I'd had a win, he said: 'That reminds me, I need to check my ticket.' I said 'don't bother Dave - I won the lot'.”
The couple went on a cruise after the win, which Mr Wragg said they “loved”. At the time they were looking at buying the council house they lived in but ended up in a more luxurious property still in the Steel City.
The pair lived a nice life but became affectionately known as the ‘Lotto Angels,’ as they gave most of their winnings away to good causes.
Sadly, Barbara passed away in 2018 aged 77 – ever since, husband Ray has been fulfilling his wife’s wishes for him to live life to the fullest with their winnings.
Sheffield hairdresser Deana Sampson also swapped her city council home for a luxury conversion in Baslow after scooping £5.4m. She had just £3.60 in her bank accounts when she matched her numbers in 1996. Her first purchase was a new pair of trainers.
In March 2018, a syndicate of 19 Sheffield couriers scooped themselves a £228,000 prize on the Euromillions jackpot, with each pocketing £12,000 a piece.
Syndicate leader Craig Davison said at the time the win was “a dream”, and thought he was “seeing things” when his numbers came up.
West Yorkshire
Amanda, 50, and Graham Nield, 58, moved to Wakefield from Dewsbury after winning £6.6m in August 2013.
Mr Nield had double cause for celebration, with the win prompting him to propose to Amanda on the same day, and he later built a house which allowed for his new fiancée’s father, who has Alzheimer’s, to live with them.
“Winning has changed my life immensely,” Mr Nield said.
“We were renting at the time and Amanda’s dad was poorly with Alzheimer’s and at the weekend we were due to move in with him.
“Now there’s no stress. We’ve built the house I’d dreamed of, looked after our five kids and are able to look after Amanda’s dad full-time.”
Sarah and Aldan Ibbetson, who live in Ilkley, won the £3,013,767 jackpot back in 2002.
Sarah Ibbetson, aged 41, was on maternity leave as a dental nurse when she won £3,013,767 on July 20 2002.
Her first two purchases - with husband Aldan, also 41 - were a Mercedes-Benz and a Porsche. They paid for both vehicles on a debit card.
The couple, who have three children, also made it on to the bottom of Sunday Times Rich List and started their own number plate business.
Susan Crossland and her husband Michael, from Mirfield, won £1.2m in July 2008 with the numbers her late father had played.
“My dad passed away in 2006 and I took his Lottery numbers on, and on the anniversary of his death we won.
“I felt quite guilty because he always said he wanted to win. He also said he would come back to see us as a rainbow, and later I went to see a psychic who said Dad was going to leave me a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.”
Arron Walshaw and his fiancee Ceri Hall won the £1m raffle prize back in 2018.
Arron bought a lottery ticket in the midst of the couple saving up for a £50 camping trip - within 24 hours they discovered they were millionaires.
The plasterer from Wakefield famously claimed his ticket at the last minute and has since thanked the shopper who let him go first in the queue.
Lucky residents living at Park Street, Halton in East Leeds, won up to £3,000 in The People’s Postcode Lottery.
The LS15 7QU postcode was one of forty across the UK to win the daily lottery and players with one ticket have won £1,000.
Those playing with two tickets picked up £2,000, while those with three tickets scooped the maximum £3,000.
Castleford’s Viv Nicholson’s extravagant promise to “spend, spend, spend” a £152,000 football pools jackpot back in 1961, the equivalent of £3.5 million today made her one of the most talked-about people in the country.
So much so her Spend Spend Spend story was made into a West End musical.
Nicholson died at the age of 79, following a five-year battle with dementia.
Leaving behind her son, Howard who said in a statement: “We are saddened to announce the death of our much loved mum, Viv Nicholson.
“After suffering with dementia for five years, she died on 11 April 2015 at [Wakefield’s] Pinderfields Hospital with her sons at her side.
“Viv was a one-off in all ways – a loving and loved mother, a glamorous great grandmother and a friend to many. Our family is in shock and wish to be left alone today to grieve.”
Nicholson was a 25-year-old Castleford factory worker when she and her pit trainee husband Keith won today’s equivalent of £3.5m on the pools.
She did as she vowed and spent her fortune within three years of winning it.
East Yorkshire
Elaine and Rob Leason, from Driffield, won £1.4m each in 2005 as part of an 11 person-strong £18.2m Tesco syndicate.
The couple have always loved supporting charities and often dress up to spread some Christmas cheer. They were unable to give back in person during the pandemic, but were delighted to be back out on the streets of York again in their festive finery handing out hampers last Christmas.
How would you spend your winnings?
Interesting facts about the National Lottery:
Since 1994 The National Lottery has made over 6,300 millionaires across the UK. They currently make an average of seven new millionaires every week.
Eighty-five per cent of lottery winners choose to remain anonymous.
The average winner buys four new cars for either themselves or friends and family, while ten per cent buy more than ten.
The most unusual purchases in among lottery winners include: A pair of new hips ‘for the wife,’ a narrowboat, Tarantulas, a firework company and next door’s house, before turning it into a pub.
Defying the odds of 350 billion to one, a family from the West Midlands, has had three separate jackpot wins, with a total value of £3.25 million.
General information on winning in the region can be found on the TNL website on the following page. Please note: the data is up to 2019 and we will not be releasing updated data in the short term.
https://www.national-lottery.co.uk/life-changing/winner-millionaire-map?icid=lich-212:bd:5:tnls-win:tnl:lich-wimima-912:in:btn