THE People’s Postcode Lottery has seen a number of lucky punters scoop life-changing amounts of cash.
But it can equally have it’s share of heartbreak with some winners not having everything fall exactly in their favour.
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Lisa Thomas
Andrew Gillion scooped part of a £7.9million lottery jackpot but tragically died before finding out he’d won the huge prize.
His heartbroken daughter Lisa said that she was “devastated” despite the golden envelope arriving at her house.
She discovered he, along with everyone else on Shaw Crescent, Wishaw, had won a £7.9million Postcode Lottery jackpot – with his share a whopping £8,092.
The dad could not enjoy any of the spoils after he fell down the stairs and broke his neck at a friend’s house on New Years Eve.
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Lisa told The Daily Record: “When I got it confirmed, I felt absolutely devastated at first.
“I could just hear the excited phone call from him telling me he had won and I know his first thought would be to book us all a holiday.
“Now I still feel sad that he’s not here to enjoy this with us, but I also feel some excitement for him and I’m sure he has had something to do with this.”
Lisa added: “All I remember him saying is, ‘well you won’t be laughing when I win!’ and he was right I wasn’t laughing, I was crying.”
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Thelma Lewis
And one great-grandmother who won £333,000 on People’s Postcode Lottery only took home a quarter thanks to an age-old pact.
Thelma Lewis, 81, signed up for the lottery scheme after her two daughters and one of their sisters-in-law started playing four years ago.
But the group decided they would split the prize if any of them won.
That means that when she won a whopping £333,333 Postcode Lottery‘s weekly Millionaire Street prize on September 23 – only a quarter was her’s.
Honest Thelma stayed true to her word but her winnings could have been a whole lot more.
She said: “I threw the phone to my daughter when the lottery phoned to tell me. I thought it was someone mucking about.
“I had been about to cancel it, too. I won’t be doing that after this.
“I want to help the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren.”
Lesley McNally
Meanwhile, Lesley McNally scooped a £166,666 lottery prize with her late husband’s tickets.
Lesley, 54, kept playing after her beloved hubby Garry died suddenly of a heart attack in September 2021, just five days after celebrating his 60th birthday.
And the mum-of-three wept when it was revealed their postcode – M27 9UY – had landed the whopping sum in May this year.
Lesley said: “I’m happy that I’ve won, and the family have won. But it is tinged with sadness, because we had played for a long time and Garry’s not here to see it.”
Car dealership administrator Lesley had been with Garry since she was 16 and was wed for 37 years before he tragically passed away.
Grandmother Lesley said: “We played Postcode Lottery in the old house and continued to play when we moved here. We had a bigger house, then the boys all left, and we downsized.
“If he was here, he would have started building. After we moved in, he had the roof off in a day.
“Now I’ll just enjoy it and do what we wanted to do.”
She added: “I feel sick, I’m just overwhelmed…I really don’t know how to feel.
“There are just so many emotions that went through my head. It’s unbelievable and will change the family’s lives. It will all be shared. It’ll help me and the boys.”
Her son Alan reckons their dad is looking down on them.
He said: “I’m not a spiritual person, but when we were paying for dad’s headstone, mum got the £2,000 win – and now this.”
Tracy Braithwaite
Mum Tracy Braithwaite, 40, and her children’s plans to head on their dream holiday were ruined when a bathroom nightmare saw their Yorkshire house flood.
The family’s house was destroyed and the trip was cancelled with the hard-earned money used to repair her home.
But the mum was stunned to then find out she’d scooped a sweet £123,076 on the People’s Postcode Lottery.
While the win came at the perfect time, it still did not completely fix the trauma of the situation.
And the family are still not back at their beloved house despite the influx of money.
Tracy, an urgent care nurse practitioner, said: “We had to vacate our house literally the day after my 40th birthday when the bathroom flooded.
“It wrecked all of downstairs. We lost it all.
“And then the money I’d saved which should have been going towards Disneyland Florida for my birthday went on the house.”
She and her youngsters had been forced to move in with family while the house was being repaired.
“We’ll be able to move back home sooner than we thought.”
Remember to gamble responsibly
A responsible gambler is someone who:
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- Establishes time and monetary limits before playing
- Only gambles with money they can afford to lose
- Never chase their losses
- Doesn’t gamble if they’re upset, angry, or depressed
- Gamcare – www.gamcare.org.uk
- Gamble Aware – www.begambleaware.org
For help with a gambling problem, call the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133 or go to www.gamstop.co.uk to be excluded from all UK-regulated gambling websites.
