'Money is only worth having if you do some good with it'

Every week, without fail, the couple place a pound coin in each of the pots as pocket money for their six grandchildren. It's a modest sum, the kind grandparents up and down the country set aside and a sign perhaps the couple kept good on their promise made 10 years ago when they won a 7.6m Lottery jackpot.

"We said then it wouldn't change us," says 69-year-old Barbara. "I'm sure there were some people who didn't believe us, but we didn't want for much before that day and we're not the kind to go mad.

"We treat the grandchildren, of course we do, at birthdays and Christmas, but we also want them to grow up knowing the value of money. We don't want them to think they can have everything they ask for."

The Wraggs' win may be dwarved by the 113m Euro Millions ticket anonymously claimed this week, but it was more than enough to transform their lives. The couple discovered their numbers had come up sitting in front of their television in their end-of-terrace home in Sheffield in January 2000.

It was Ray who'd filled in the ticket by noting down the numbers of car registration plates to relieve the boredom as he drove up to 1,000 miles a week as a supervisor at a sheet cladding company.

He immediately gave up work, as did Barbara, who had spent the previous 22 years on the night shift at the city's Royal Hallamshire Hospital as a nursing support assistant.

Ray bought the Range Rover he'd always wanted, but the Wraggs' initial splurge was perhaps surprisingly tame.

"Ray and I both came from working class families and financially we lived from month to month," says Barbara.

"We didn't have to scrimp, but we always had to work. After we got married we moved into a council house and when eventually we bought it for 8,915 I thought, 'That's it, we've got everything we could ever want'.

"Maybe if we'd won the money when we'd been a lot younger it might have been different, but the only thing I'd ever dreamed about was living in a house with bay windows."

Barbara got her bay windows. Shortly after receiving their jackpot cheque they bought a house on a new estate in the Sheffield suburbs and after years of holidaying in Torquay the couple also booked a couple of cruises. However, with both making little dent in their bank balance, the Wraggs have since given much of their fortune away to friends, family and local charities.

Ensuring their own three sons were financially secure, one of the first things the Wraggs did was to write a 10,000 cheque made out to Sheffield Children's Hospital.

The city's Weston Park Hospital has also been on the receiving end of the couple's generosity as was a group of Second World War veterans who were struggling to fund a trip to Italy to honour their fallen colleagues.

"We always said money is only worth having if you do some good with it," says Barbara.

"A lot of our friends like us were saving up for their retirement and it meant we could help them out a little and obviously we put some aside for our own children, but even then we still had far too much money for the two of us. The hospitals can put it to much better use."

In a few weeks, the Wragg family will be celebrating Barbara's 70th birthday with a big party.

They will be no pile of presents, just a few buckets on the bar if

people want to make a donation to charity.

The couple are great believers that giving is better than receiving, but the begging letters, including one memorable one from a man claiming to be unemployed and asking for 7,500 so he could complete a course to become a driving instructor, have been difficult for Barbara to deal with.

"I wanted to believe they were all genuine," she says.

"I remember saying to Ray, 'They must be really desperate because why else would someone write to a complete stranger asking for money?'

"It took me a little while to realise that when you have a win like we did there are all sorts of people out there who want a bit of your good fortune.

"As my daughter said, 'Mum, you grew up without much money, but you never went begging for other people's'."

Like many winners, the Wraggs still do the Lottery, and know exactly what they'd do with a second windfall.

"I've told the hospitals, to be prepared," says Barbara. "If we were ever lucky enough to win again it's all coming their way."

How my late father's numbers came up and secured our family's future

With parents who had just won 1.2m on the Lottery, when Jamie Crossland was old enough to drive he might have expected a new car to be parked on the driveway.

Instead, his mother Sue told him he would have to pay for his own lessons and only once he passed his test would she consider buying him a car.

"Having that amount of money was unimaginable," says the 46-year-old, who has three other children.

"Before we won my husband, Michael, used to work on a dairy farm milking the cows. Because he didn't drive, I'd get up with him at 2am to take him to the farm. Going from that kind of routine to having a million in the bank is disorientating.

"For a little while afterwards it just sat there and each week I only withdrew the same amount of money I always had.

"You hear of so many people losing the plot after a big win and I just wanted to be cautious. When it came to the children we were both very clear that they still had to work hard for things and they've all been very sensible."

Sue admits that when she first realised she had won in July 2008 she screamed the house down, but after the initial wave of euphoria she and the rest of the family were determined life would carry on as normal, albeit with the usual financial worries lifted.

With an elder sister who is severely disabled, and two other siblings with learning difficulties, the money has allowed Sue and Michael to safeguard their future and, before Christmas, they hope to move the entire family into a new specially-adapted home.

For Sue it's that, much more than the possibility of designer clothes and expensive cars, that makes her grateful for the unexpected windfall.

"My dad died a few years ago and in the week of the anniversary of his death we switched to using his Lottery numbers and won," says Sue.

"My mum died last year and I honestly believe dad was looking down on us and this was his way of making sure we were all going to be okay."

Like the Wraggs, Sue has become increasingly involved in charity work since her win, helping out at the Holybank Trust in Mirfield, which supports children and adults with severe learning difficulties and their families, and sponsoring a guide dog for the blind. "I know just how important respite care is for families affected by disability," she says.

"We've made some financial donations, but for me it's more about being able to help out with other fundraising events. It's true what they say, the more you put into something, the more you get back."

The Crosslands have allowed themselves a few indulgences and last year Sue and Michael renewed their marriage vows in a ceremony that was much more lavish than their original wedding.

"I had a great big dress, seven bridesmaids and there was a chocolate fountain at the reception," adds Sue.

"However, I still couldn't help totting everything up and worrying we were spending too much. It's been two years since the win, but it still hasn't sunk in. I'm not sure it ever will."