A fireman, a retired couple and a mum-of-three were among eight neighbours in St Brides Major to net a £30,000 cash prize each, all thanks to their postcode.
The neighbours’ windfall came after their postcode of CF32 0SW, in St Brides Major near Bridgend,was announced as a winner with People’s Postcode Lottery on Saturday 7th August.
Andy Shaw (45), a local fireman, was one of the lucky winners and found out much he had won during a video call with lottery ambassador Danyl Johnson. On seeing a prize cheque for £30,000, Andy said: “Oh wow, that’s amazing!
Andy is hoping to use his winnings to find a new family home with partner, Sian, and their three-year-old daughter: “It couldn’t have come at a better time for us really. We’re in the process of putting bids in on a new house. I’m sure my daughter will get some nice treats as well.”
Thrilled to be winning with his neighbours, he said: “During lockdown we all came together as a community and got to know each other. This will make everyone a little bit happier.
“It’s outstanding, the more people you can share with the better. The community around us is really nice and I think personally everyone deserves a little bit of happiness.”
Allan McDowall-Thomas (69) was another neighbour to collect a prize cheque and learned of his win with his wife Joan. On seeing his winnings, he said: “Woah, what?! I’m a bit speechless!”
Joan added: “Good grief, that’s amazing. Absolutely amazing.”
With their fifth grandchild on the way, Joan’s first plans for the winnings were for family: “Last November, we had a lockdown wedding. Our youngest daughter got married and she’s expecting a baby in 10 weeks’ time. I think she’s going to have some of it!”
Allan added that their other two children might be in for a treat as well: “I’m sure they’ll be quite happy.”
The couple also said they would like to spend some of the winnings on a holiday, Allan added: “We’ve had holidays cancelled because of Covid but hopefully soon we’ll be able to travel more extensively. We were due to go to Saudi Arabia and the Emirates on a cruise, so we’d like to reintroduce that, and it will be a lot easier to pay for it now!”
Rebecca Daniel (40) also scooped a £30K prize and was thrilled to win, especially as she had narrowly missed out on a win in the past. She said: “We moved out of our old house and I think three or four months after we had moved out we heard that the street had won!”
As her golden envelope was opened, she said: “Oh my goodness. Amazing, wow! That’s a crazy amount.”
The mum-of-three wasn’t sure on how she would spend her winnings at first but did have a few ideas come to mind: “Spend it on the kids, do a bit of UK travelling. I have no idea! I thought it might be £1,000 and we might get a sofa!”
Rebecca also hoped to get some luxuries for an upcoming family holiday: “We’re going camping up in Snowden next week, I may upgrade our tent and splash out for an air bed! It’s the summer holidays so we could go from North Wales and do a bit more travelling north.”
After a little thought, Rebecca, who works as a HR manager, said a holiday was top of her list for a treat for herself: “Just a holiday would be lovely. I turned 40 in the middle of the pandemic and we wanted to go away, but with all the lockdown restrictions it just hasn’t happened. A large portion of it will be for one of those once in a lifetime holidays, a nice UK holiday. That’s my plan.”
When asked how she would celebrate the news, Rebecca joked that her children would definitely have a request: “I would have thought there’ll be calls for a McDonald’s, but we might try to upgrade to something else!”
People’s Postcode Lottery ambassador Danyl Johnson sent his congratulations to all the winners, he said: “What a great surprise for our winners in St Brides Major! It was so nice to bring Andy, Allan, Joan and Rebecca this great news and I can tell they’re all going to have a fantastic time with their winnings.
“A massive congratulations to them and all our other winners!”
The other winners were either unavailable to collect their cheques or chose to remain anonymous.
Everyday throughout the August draws one postcode will be announced as a £30,000 prize winner. All the players in the postcode will win £30,000 for every ticket they hold.
People’s Postcode Lottery costs £10 a month to play and there are guaranteed winners every day. People play with their chosen postcode and are automatically entered into all draws.
A minimum of 33% of ticket sales goes directly to charities and players of People’s Postcode Lottery have helped raise over £750 million to date for thousands of good causes across Britain and internationally.
