What do you give a group of Lottery winners worth £25 million? A party to celebrate.And a fireman, IT engineer, former chef, a pub clearner who refused to share her winnings with her children and the man who blew his £2.8 million prize on fast living, got just that in Bath and North East Somerset.
Winners from across the West got together to tell of the good times, and sad, as research revealed Lottery jackpot success was akin to a grandparent being presented with a first grandchild on the happiness scale.
One Somerset couple have found it hard to adjust with Denise Hardware missing her bakery job "terribly" and her 55-year-old husband Paul struggling to adapt to the slower pace of life.
Mr and Mrs Hardware won £4.9 million in 2007 and not surprisingly quit their jobs.
“They did say I could have stayed at work part-time and I wish I had because the people I worked with were amazing,” Mrs Hardware said.
“I even missed getting up at 4am every morning. I still do the odd wedding cake and birthday cake.”
Pub chef Paul always checked the lottery numbers before work on Sunday morning. On the day he realised he and his wife had won the jackpot he still went in to work but asked for the next day off to pick up his winnings.
But for a Dorset couple, Ed and Michelle Edwards from Sherborne, winning £1.9 million was the opportunity they craved to give something back to the community.
Mr Edwards, went part-time as an IT consultant for the Avon and Somerset Probation Trust and his wife quit her job as a shop manager and became an unpaid dog trainer for the charity Canine Partners, who provide specially-trained dogs for disabled people.
The couple have bought a new home, yacht and took some friends on holiday.
“I don’t feel like it is my money so I don’t mind spending it on other people,” Mrs Edwards said.
“If I had earned it the hard way it might be different.”
“It’s burned in your memory, I will never forget it,” said Ed.
“Having spoken to a few of the other winners, it’s funny because very few absolutely jump for joy, everybody remains calm but of course it changes your life. Those first few days are actually like a bereavement but in a good way, because you realise your life is never going to be the same again.”
Diane Collins shared a glass of Pimm’s at the party yesterday and declared her type of win – she scooped £40,000 a year for life on a scratchcard in May this year – was better.
“I think it’s better because it’s nice and measured and you can’t go mad,” said the 45-year-old who runs the jewellers Weston Gold Exchange in Weston-super-Mare.
“I’ve invested a lot of it in gold, obviously, and we’re putting dormer windows in the bungalow. It’s nice with things like birthdays – two of my three children have them this month – and you can afford to do what they want to do without worrying about it,” she added.
The party was held to celebrate the Lottery creating 150 millionaires in the South West since 1994, paying out £820 million in cash prizes
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