The UK's luckiest street has been revealed after 13 neighbours have won the lottery jackpot, and have gone on to share the whopping sum.
A great grandmother-of-fourteen, a care worker and a newly married couple are among the thirteen winners living on the same street, and sharing out the £3.9 million they won with People’s Postcode Lottery.
When the LN12 1RQ postcode in Mablethorpe, a seaside town in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, was revealed as the full winning postcode, eleven of the neighbours pocketed a cheque for £263,333.
And another two neighbours scooped a whopping £526,666 of the prize money each, thanks to playing with two tickets.
The winners have now revealed that they "just couldn’t believe" it when they received the life-changing amount of money.
Cyril Hellewell ,56, says he has now become a ‘half-a-millionaire’ after winning £526,666.
Speaking about how he found out about his winning prize cheque, the father-of-two says his wife, Maria, read the numbers out loud.
An astonished Cyril said: “It’s a miracle. I was just flabbergasted, absolutely flabbergasted, I just couldn’t believe the amount; It really is once in a lifetime stuff,” adding that some of the winnings would go to help his and Maria’s children.
“We can sort the kids out - which is a great feeling," he added.
He went on to say that the money will help the pair - who got married last year - go on their dream honeymoon, saying: “We’ve always wanted to go to Egypt together. So, we can now do that and have the honeymoon we never went on.”
However, the dad has admitted that his first purchase with the eye-watering sum of money will not be as luxurious, claiming that he's going to be going straight to the shops to buy butter, joking: “First thing I’m going to get is some Lurpak for the fridge, it’s that expensive these days. I can buy at least 10 packs now."
Bonita Haley, 76, was the second neighbour who netted £526,666, after finding out about the win alongside her husband. Speaking on her behalf, Peter said: “One day you’ve just got your pension, the next day you’ve got over half a million. It’s quite something, we’re still in shock."
Great grandmother-of-fourteen Beverley White, 82, and her husband Michael White, 81, were one of the dozen to each pocket £263,666.
Recalling the moment they found out the money, Beverley says the couple yelled out in disbelief as their grandkids watched on, as she said: “Oh my god! Look! Oh, kids we’ll have a good old Christmas now… and many Christmases to come."
The 82-year-old, who worked as a nurse for over 30 years, went on to add that she never thought she would scoop up such a large sum of money, saying: “Never in my life did I think that this would happen to us. I’d love to see my bank managers face when that goes in my bank account.
“I don’t think I’ve ever made that much money in my whole life, and I’ve worked from when I was 15 until I retired.”
She continued to say: “We can really help out our kids, grandkids and great grandkids. It’ll be a Christmas to remember.
“We’ve always talked about buying a bungalow – we can actually do that now.
And Michael, who worked as a long-distance lorry driver, added: “We gave up the mobility car that we had last year and Beverley needs a special car to get in and out of. We could now buy a Citroen Berlingo to make our life easier when getting about locally.”
Another neighbour Samantha Douglas, 54, was left ecstatic after winning £263,333, after receiving the news while in-between working back-to-back nightshifts at a local care home.
Samantha, who has lived on the street for over 40 years, said: “It’s fantastic, I’m over the moon," adding that: “We’ve not even gave it a thought about what we could buy because we’ve never thought about winning this sort of money – never in our wildest dreams really.”
“There will be something for our children and my first buy will be to replace our 20-year-old car with a new one.”
Meanwhile, locals Gordon Ames and Lynda Ames took home a combined £526,666.
The grandparents have opened up saying that their winnings will go to helping out their family and local charities too.
Lynda said: “It gives us an opportunity to share it with our local charities too, such as the RNLI, Cancer and Air Ambulance charities and Dogs Home.
“We like to help people out and charities are important in our small community in Mablethorpe."
Neighbours Gordon Hillam, 76, Patricia Sheldon, 74, and Leonard Hudson, 78, have all revealed they are 'counting their lucky stars' after raking in £263,333 each.
Leonard has admitted that he cannot believe his luck, saying: “I’m stunned. I signed up to maybe win but mostly to help charities – it’s astronomical.
“It’s a brilliant community and I thank my lucky stars I’ve won – I feel elated.”
The remaining three winners on the street have opted to remain anonymous, but have received cheques ranging from £6,067 to £24,268 - depending on how many tickets they play with.
Speaking about the lucky win, People’s Postcode Lottery ambassador Jeff Brazier congratulated all the winners.
He said: “I am so thrilled for all of our winners. It has been a memorable day for so many in Mablethorpe and it’s been great to see the community celebrate together. It’s what the Postcode Lottery is all about!”
The number of winners and prize amounts:
2 x £526,666 (2 tickets playing with full winning postcode LN12 1RQ)
11 x £263,333 (1 ticket playing with full wining postcode LN12 1RQ)
1 x £24,268 (4 tickets)
6 x £18,201 (3 tickets)
58 x £12,134 (2 tickets)
513 x £6,067 (1 ticket)
How the People’s Postcode Lottery works
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.
Players have raised more than £950 million for over 9,000 charities and good causes since 2005.
This Postcode Millions draw was held on behalf of Postcode Support Trust, which funds charities including Crisis UK, Missing People and Silverline Helpline.
People’s Postcode Lottery is an external lottery manager which operates lotteries on behalf of 20 independent charitable Postcode Trusts.
It is licensed and regulated by the Gambling Commission.
Players have raised more than £900 million for over 9,000 charities and good causes since 2005. For further information, you can visit: www.postcodelottery.info
