Roughly 7,200 new millionaires have been created since the National Lottery’s conception in 1994.
That’s a lot of lives that have been changed beyond recognition – especially the anonymous winners who, in recent years, have won nearly £200m.
If, like Gloucester’s Joe and Jess Thwaite in 2022, you woke up to £184m – how would you spend it? A flash car? Shiny new watch? Start your own business? With enough money to buy four Caribbean islands (with change left over), the mind boggles at the almost endless possibilities.
Last month was the National Lottery’s 30th birthday (November 19th), so we thought it was time to take a retrospective look at some of the most interesting purchases winners made with their newfound fortunes.
With help from Royal Westmoreland, we’ve collected six brilliant examples of lottery winners spending their fortunes on the extravagant, sentimental and wonderful.
Make a crazy golf course
Last September, 68-year-old charity worker David Lawrence was the winner of £1m in the National Lottery. His main purchase seemed pretty ordinary at first, a gorgeous new home more befitting of his wealth. After all, who wouldn’t buy themselves a stunning new house with that kind of money?
What many people don’t know about David, is that he has been raising money for charity over the last 30 years, specifically working with people who have disabilities. As it happens, he’s also a keen mini-golfer.
After learning of the benefits crazy golf can have on people with disabilities, he decided to combine his two passions and start his own crazy golf tournament. Just like that, “Dave’s Putting Challenge” was born!
He built the crazy golf course in the back garden of his new home, inviting members from disability support groups Leatherhead Link, TAG and the Leatherhead Swans to compete.
As far as we’re concerned, this use of lotto funds is a hole-in-one.
Smell the roses
In 2022, Con Smith, a 58-year-old florist from Kent, won nearly £247,463 from a lucky dip on the EuroMillions – providing a strong boost to his high street business.
Much-deserved luck brought Con to his win after a year of unfortunate events, with Con purchasing his ticket when taking home his seriously ill father from the hospital. He decided his dad needed something to eat, so he picked up some food from his local chippy and popped into the corner shop while he waited for the food to be cooked from fresh.
It was an unsuspected miracle that his father was released from the hospital that day, as was the coincidence that his food would take longer than usual to cook. What’s more, Con had never visited that shop before!
Con checked his ticket the next morning before rushing to his shop to tell his wife the good news.
Con decided to put some of the money away for his children and to renovate parts of his home, but the rest would be going into his local florist business. An independent shop that delivers flowers door-to-door, Con was and still is determined to make sure his business continues to serve the people of Kent.
Well done, Con!
Own your childhood football team
No more blaming the club’s owner for your team’s performance!
Footy-mad Colin Weir won a whopping £161m in 2011, £2.5m of which he invested into his local football club, Partick Thistle FC. He also set up the Weir Charitable Trust with his then-wife, Chris. The trust supports community groups and charities in Scotland.
Colin’s dream was to give the majority shareholding of the club to the fans, but Colin sadly passed away in 2019 after suffering from a short-term illness at the age of 71. Thankfully, three and a half years later, his dream was posthumously made a reality with an agreement made during a meeting at The Colin Weir Stand in the club’s grounds.
As of July 2023, Partick Thistle FC is a fan-owned club – just as Colin dreamed. 13 years on, it looks like the £2.5m Colin invested into the club back in 2011 is still bringing joy to the community.
Now that’s a great use of lottery funds!
Buy a sanctuary in Barbados
Les Scadding won £45.5m in 2009, on which he lived very comfortably in the UK as he adjusted to his new lifestyle. First on his list was a Range Rover Sport, but he soon set his eyes on a grander prize – his lovely wife, Dee!
Dee was a local estate agent who met Les when he wandered in after seeing her through the agency window, hoping to get to know her better over a few house viewings. They ended up travelling the world over the next 18 months, but they found their forever home in the beautiful Caribbean island of Barbados.
Settling down in a stunning villa, the two now enjoy the lifestyle that comes with owning some luxury real estate in Barbados. It’s one thing to use your lottery millions to buy a stunning new home, but buying up property on a Caribbean island is certainly going the extra mile (4,160 of them, to be exact).
Purchase your own woodland
Have you ever wanted to work in nature? Kent couple Ted and Marilyn Newton did! They realised their lifelong dream to work with plants when winning £7.9m on the Lotto Jackpot in 2009, a life-changing amount of money that they began to spend on a new car and home in the Kent countryside.
The nearby wood was owned by a man who lived in a caravan, a man who was cared for by the Newtons’ neighbour, Peter. The wood owner left the wood to Peter in his will, leading Peter to eventually sell it.
When Ted and Marilyn caught wind that the woodland was being sold, they didn’t hesitate to snap up the unique opportunity to buy their very own nature retreat.
Ted was a gardener, so he took on the project of maintaining and rejuvenating the wood from his love for nature. He never had to work a day in his life again after his big lottery win, but it’s all about the plants for Ted.
Since planting new trees, such as larch and beech, wildlife has now returned to the wood. What’s more, Ted and Marilyn invite local schools and community groups to use the wood for educational and event purposes, as well as allow dog walkers to enjoy the trails.
Buy a… pig farm?
Now then, hear us out. If you want to invest your lottery winnings, forget crypto, fine art or land – pigs might be the way to go.
Former hairdresser Sue Herdman won £1.2m on the lottery in 2010, ending her days of struggling to save for a mortgage when she saw her winning numbers on the telly. She didn’t know it at the time, but her life was about to change forever. She knew about the money, of course. What she didn’t know was that she was about to fall in love with rearing pigs.
After visiting a fortune teller shortly before the prize draw, Sue was told that she had a big win on the horizon, prompting Sue to buy a lottery ticket. This ended up being true, but she didn’t spend her new-found fortune straight away. She sat on the money for the first six months after winning, going to work and cutting hair as normal.
Sue wanted to use the money to find peace, happiness and security – and she knew fancy cars and big houses weren’t the answer for her. Instead, Sue used the money to move across the country and invest in her long-distance farmer boyfriend’s pig farm.
Roughly 1,000 piglets are born weekly at her farm, a treasure she values higher than any amount of money.
Do you ever fantasise about what you would buy if you won the lottery? We hope we’ve sparked your creativity with these brilliant investments if the dream ever does happen.
