RESIDENTS of a street in Westerleigh have shared a £1 million windfall after their postcode came up in a lottery draw.
Coalpit Heath-based charity Paul’s Place is also celebrating after being given a £75,000 grant by the People’s Postcode Lottery.
Nine residents of Mill Crescent in the village shared the competition’s weekly jackpot between them when their numbers came up in December.
The prize was split 11 ways, into shares of £90,909. Two of the residents, who had bought two tickets each, doubled the size of their wins to £181,818.
Among the winners was NHS nurse Luke Packer, 25, who is splitting his prize with mum Maria and dad Rob after going halves on a ticket.
Luke used to split a ticket with his late great-gran Betty Smith, and Maria took over her half after Betty died in 2018.
Luke said: “I’m sure she’s watching over us.”
Luke, who has been successfully treated for an aggressive form of skin cancer, is planning to use the money to finish renovating the house he bought with girlfriend Milly Ford, next door to his parents.
He said: “This has made my life, let alone Christmas. This is the sort of money you don’t come across that often and are unlikely to ever again. I feel fantastic, on top of the world.”
Holiday of a lifetime
IT manager Fraser Clark and his family are planning to use their share to fund a holiday of a lifetime in Canada and the US, and plan to hire a convertible car to drive from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.
Card Factory worker, mum-of-three and grandmother Heather Harding planned to buy “extra presents” a new hairdo and two bottles of Baileys for starters.
Car auctioneer Matt Hewer is planning to buy his wife a new motor and fund a family holiday from his winnings.
Mum-of-four Julie Weaver is planning a Caribbean cruise.
On the day she found out what her share of the prize would be she said: “I’ve been up since 3am. I just didn’t think this would happen to me, it’s amazing.”
Sandie Bradley and husband Paul (above) are planning an exotic holiday, upgrades to their home and to help their son, daughter and three grandchildren.
Sandie said: “This will make an amazing difference.”
The couple started playing the Postcode Lottery because of the donations it makes to charities.
Under the People’s Postcode Lottery, people pay £12 a month to enter and postcodes are picked at random for daily, weekly and monthly draws, including the weekly Millionaire Street prize won by the Westerleigh residents.
Charity’s £75,000 will help it expand
COALPIT Heath charity Paul’s Place has been awarded £75,000 by Postcode Community Trust.
The charity, which supports physically disabled adults, providing a place for them to socialise and access activities and opportunities, is one of three local charities to be given an award.
Paul’s Place currently runs a day centre at Coalpit Heath Cricket Club but is planning to relocate to the former Shire Way Community Centre in Yate during 2025, before its current lease runs out in the summer.
The charity is running a fundraising appeal to support the project, but recently had to spend £6,000 to repair the community centre’s roof and ceiling, after thieves stripped lead from the tiles and rain soaked through.
An appeal for help raised almost £2,000 from supporters but the cost of the repair meant it had less to spend on other repairs and refurbishment work.
‘Incredibly exciting’
Paul’s Place was first formed in 1995 when a group of friends created a social club for physically disabled adults, and it has already had to move premises twice to meet increased demand for its services.
Chief executive Lynda Williams said: “Around 100 adults use our services, but our current premises has a capacity of up to 30 people a day depending on need.
“We are at a point where our demand drastically outweighs our supply, but next year we will be moving to our biggest space yet.
“It’s an incredibly exciting time for us as the development has everything for our service-users – sensory rooms, state of the art gym and a media centre to name a few.
“However, whilst we build plans for that we need to make sure we can keep our current offering going.”
The lottery grant will give its plans a big boost.
Lynda said: “Like most charities, we are feeling the squeeze of the cost-of-living crisis, especially at this time of year.
“The funding will play a key role in moving Paul’s Place forward and allow us to continue to keep our arms open to the community in the meantime.”
Two other local organisations were also awarded funding: Age UK South Gloucestershire, which supports older people with activities, services and advice, and North Bristol & South Glos Foodbank, which provides emergency food and support to people in crisis.
Players of People’s Postcode Lottery have raised more than £1.4 billion for thousands of charities and local good causes.
To read about the Paul’s Place Hub Appeal and donate, visit www.paulsplace.org.uk/hub.