|
A syndicate of catering and cleaning staff
at Clayton Barracks in Aldershot are the first
winners of the new Dream Number jackpot to go
public. Dame Kelly Holmes helped to mark the
occasion by celebrating with the syndicate,
which scooped £500,000 on Wednesday 13
September by matching all seven number in the
order they were drawn.
"I am very pleased to be celebrating this
fantastic win with the lucky syndicate today,"
Dame Kelly Holmes said according to a Camelot
press release. "Dream Number is a fantastic
game as all the Good Causes money raised from
every ticket bought goes towards funding the
London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.
It's great that games like Dream Number offer
National Lottery players the chance to win gold
themselves, while also playing their part in
supporting London 2012."
Dream Number has been running for several weeks,
but until now none of the winners have opted
to publicise their good fortune. However, the
Aldershot syndicate didn't want to keep the
good news to themselves for a moment longer
than that had to.
"We are all absolutely thrilled with the
win," said syndicate member James Rigney.
"The remarkable thing is that if it had
been left to me we would never have even bought
a ticket. Two weeks previously, I suggested
that we stopped playing the National Lottery!
Instead I thought it would be good if we all
still put our money in the pot and then used
it for a great Christmas bash. Luckily, no one
agreed with me!
"I found out that we had won on the Thursday
morning following the Wednesday draw,"
James said. "Karen Gibson, who runs the
syndicate, came into the office and told us
all to sit down. She then told us that we had
won the Dream Number jackpot! I didn't believe
her and was sure she was joking. We always have
a joke when we play the lottery - in fact I
always demand my money back when we don't win!
"Karen found out on the evening of the
draw but didn't phone any of the syndicate members.
She was worried that she had got it wrong so
she wanted to check first before telling anyone.
Karen said she was so nervous about losing the
ticket that evening that she slept with it underneath
her pillow!"
"I don't have any big plans at the moment
on what to spend the money on," James continued.
"The funny thing is that I have just traded
in my sports car because it was costing me too
much in petrol - if I had won a week earlier
I probably would have kept it! I have been looking
for a new house though, so the money will probably
go towards that. I have also given my four children
some of the money to enjoy and one of them is
planning to spend it on a trip to the Bahamas
next year."
18 October 2006
Back to news summary
• News archive
|
