30 years since first National Lottery winners

KentOnline / KMTV

Celebrating 30 years of the first National Lottery and the significant change in which it has made to many peoples lives over the years. Talking with Adam and Amy from Maidstone who were able to use the money for their disabled daughter.  Bartholomew Hall reports

Transcript

00:0030 years have passed since the first national lottery balls were called and the first of

00:04a very few lucky people have become much, much richer up and down the country, including

00:10here in Kent. From the peculiar Mr P who won a million pounds to go on holiday to the 100,000

00:16zipped by Mrs Z. Not all of Kent's lottery winners have chosen to go public over the

00:21years, but for those who do, it's clear just how much the windfall can change someone's

00:26life. Like Adam and Amy from Maidstone, whose winnings meant the financial freedom to be

00:31closer with their disabled daughter.

00:33Are you shut out the bedroom?

00:35Yeah, to get my phone screen to light up, just to make sure there was as many zeros

00:38there as I thought.

00:39It just means that now we don't have to worry about any future care she might need because

00:43we don't know what the future holds for her, so it just means that financially we'll be

00:47able to support her through whatever and also it means, you know, if it comes to a point

00:51where we can't care for her or we're not around anymore, we can afford the best possible

00:57care for her.

00:58Or Desiree Home, who used her winnings to write a book about how she went from a cancer

01:02diagnosis to winning big in the space of a decade. At the time, however, she told us

01:07the first thing she bought was none other than a toilet seat.

01:10Well, when we moved into our little mobile park home, it had a toilet seat that wouldn't

01:16stay up properly, and you'd put the seat up and it'd go clang, clang all the time,

01:22and I said I wanted a soft-closing toilet seat. So when we were on the lottery, I said

01:28to Wayne, can we have a soft-closing toilet seat, please?

01:32Away from the winners, money raised by the National Lottery has gone towards a huge number

01:36of projects here in Kent, from funding the journeys of some of our Olympic and Paralympic

01:41winners to bringing back the remnants of Kent's cultural history.

01:45The Folks in Lees Lift was established in 1885. It was closed for the last eight years,

01:53but when it reopens again, it will be 140 years since it was, since it originally opened.

02:00So because of the help of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, we are basically able to put

02:07in place our 6.6 million restoration project of the Folks in Lees Lift, which is about

02:14to start. So it's very exciting times ahead. But I think without the Heritage Fund, we

02:19wouldn't have been at all near where we are now. So it's made a huge difference that they

02:26were able to step in and support us.

02:28You might have your lucky numbers, but just like any other form of gambling, the odds

02:32are stacked against you. In order to win the Lottery, you have to be one in 50 million.

02:38Statistically speaking, there's more chance of you being struck by lightning, or becoming

02:41an astronaut, or winning an Oscar.

02:44For free help and advice, head to gambleaware.org.

02:48Bartholomew Hall for KMTV.

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