How does winning the lottery change your life?
The best part of winning a lottery jackpot is being able to take care of loved ones.
That’s according to two lucky West Yorkshire couples who scooped a combined £7.9m.
The Huddersfield Examiner grilled them years after their big money wins and asked how it had changed their lives.
Graham and Amanda Nield and Michael and Susan Crossland all agreed the extra cash made their marriages better and brought their families closer together.
Unlike some big winners, they didn’t turn to lives of self-seeking luxury, private jets and flash cars. Although both cheeky couples admit they still do the lottery in the hope lightning will strike twice in the same place!
The Neilds bagged £6,676,215 on the National Lottery four years ago.
Lottery winners, Graham and Amanda Nield.
The Wakefield couple, who worked together in a textiles factory, had been together for 10 years, but had never gotten married. Five minutes after winning, Graham popped the question to Amanda and a month later, they tied the knot.
Insisting they aren’t materialistic, they said Amanda didn’t even get an engagement ring, although she did get several new rings in the following years.
They bought themselves a purpose-built bunglow with living quarters for Amanda’s parents, as well as a house and a car for each of their five children.
Amanda said: “[My dad] had Alzheimer’s for 11 years. I kept him at home and looked after him, kept his dignity and he died peacefully and that’s what I wanted.
And the Crosslands bagged £1,218,618 nearly 10 years ago.
The Mirfield couple bought a house for £170,000 for Susan’s three siblings, all of whom have profound learning difficulties, and her mum.
But sadly, her mum died six months after moving in and her dad had already passed away too. So they sold it and bought a five-storey, seven-bedroom purpose-built house and moved Susan’s brother and two sisters in with them instead.
Lottery winners, Michael and Susan Crossland.
Now, the couple are able to care for them full-time without the help of carers.
The National Lottery changes the lives of winners like the Nields and Crosslands, as well as communities across the UK. On average, players raise over £30m for National Lottery-funded projects every week.
In Kirklees, National Lottery funding has helped support over 1,000 projects totalling more than £76m.
How much did you win and when?
Graham: £6.6m on 17 August 2013.
Lotto winners Graham Nield and Amanda Vickers.
What were your numbers and did they have any significance?
Graham: Can’t remember the numbers off the top of my head and no, they were just random numbers that I picked.
Amanda: Run around room with me nightie over my head.
Graham: The first thing I bought was a new car - a Nissan.
What is the most expensive thing you’ve bought?
Amanda: Our house. We couldn’t tell you [how much it cost]. We had it built right from scratch.
Graham: We didn’t add it up as such. We were in a position where you didn’t even bother, you just had it built sort of thing.
Lottery winners, Graham and Amanda Nield (left) with fellow winners, Susan and Michael Crossland.
Amanda: We’re simple people. We still live the simple way. We don’t go out buying extravagant [things].
Graham: I’m still known as the tight one.
Amanda: If I pick up a dear loaf of bread in the supermarket, I get told to put it back and get a cheaper one. He’s always been the same, I wouldn’t change him.
How long was it before you gave up work?
Amanda: I gave a months’ notice and he gave three months’ notice.
How many requests for money have you had?
Graham: Nobody’s really come out and asked for it. We’ve given to people and things and charities. Nobody’s bothered us like that.
Amanda: I donate to a charity every month. There’s a few - sometimes a few a month or I give one big donation.
How much have you given away?
Amanda: We’ve got 5 children between us and we bought them a house and a car each.
Graham: For the better. Financially-wise, you don’t have to worry. You don’t have to get up and go to work.
Amanda: The big impact it had on my life is I was able to care for my dad 24 hours a day. He had Alzheimer’s, I lost him last year.
He had Alzheimer’s for 11 years. It was nice to be able to keep him at home, kept him at home and looked after him, kept his dignity and he died peacefully and that’s what I wanted.
As he got worse, I ended up hiring a carer. I wouldn’t have been able to afford that or pack my job in.
That’s the big impact and I will always be grateful to the lottery for that.
Graham: More time together, do things that you wanna do when you wanna do, you’re not restricted.
Has it made your marriage better?
Amanda: We won in August and got married in September. We had been together 10 years that week he asked me.
Lotto winners, Graham Nield & Amanda Vickers on their wedding day. Saturday 28th Sept 2013. ©Victor de Jesus.
Apparently, he had been planning on asking me [to marry him] for a while and he didn’t have the guts to ask me. It just came out when we found out we won and I was all giddy. He just came straight out with it and asked me about 5 minutes [after we won].
We just had a simple registration office and then a just party at night. We didn’t want a big thing.
Do you still do the lottery?
Graham: Most definitely - every week without fail.
Amanda: Both of us - I do it online and he goes and buys his tickets.
Susan: The numbers were 6, 9, 13, 18, 29 and 30 and they were all birthdays.
Susan: We didn’t actually check it until the morning after because he had done a long shift and work and he was fast asleep.
We checked it the morning after when we used to have Ceefax on TV. It was half past 6 in the morning and we checked it like we always checked it. He used to say ‘I’ll call the numbers out and you count on your fingers’.
When he said every number, I was like, ‘no, don’t be stupid’. He said ‘honestly’ and he gave me the ticket and then I checked them, threw it up in the air, ran outside in my pyjamas at half 6 in the morning, screamed in the middle of the road and ran back in the house.
Mirfield Lottery winners Susan and Michael Crossland join hunt for mystery winner - Kingsgate Centre, Huddersfield.
Susan: Bought my mum a house for £170k. She was 68. It was quite sad because she died six months after she moved in.
There’s a bit of a story that goes into it. My brother and sisters have all got learning difficulties - my sister’s got brain damage. So we bought them the house so that they could all be together and my mum died six months later. So now they all live with us.
The numbers that we had that won the lottery were my dad’s old numbers. When he died, we did them and on the anniversary of my dad’s death, we won the lottery on his numbers.
A bit heaven sent really. It still gives me goosebumps.
We part-exchnaged that [house]. We had a big seven bedroom house built so my brother and sisters could live with us.
Susan: The house that we’re in now. The builder had just started building it and we dropped on it really. We said if you build it how we need it inside because my sister’s in a wheelchair we’ll buy it so that’s what we did.
Michael: It was about 2 years after I finished milking cows. I don’t drive so Susan used to take me to work at 2am and she got a bit fed up of that. So I actually went to go work at another farm which had better hours three days a week. I more or less packed it in about a year ago.
Susan: We gave our kids a bit of money each, we’ve bought things for them, taken them on holidays, taken our family on holidays. We do a lot of fundraising for different stuff, we did a lot more at the beginning but we still do do stuff.
Susan: We haven’t got a mortgage. Knowing that the house we’ve got is ours and that all our family is together in one house, that’s the nicest thing for us. But it hasn’t changed us as people.
Both: We’re still the same.
Susan: We’re still the same in happiness, the more happiness it’s brought us is not having to worry about bills and paying the mortage. And we’ve got a lot more time together - although I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. We’re as happy as we ever were before but we’re more happy because we don’t have the worry either. Once you take the worry away, obviously it’s bound to make you more happy.
Michael: No - she still annoys me, she’s still the boss.
Susan and Michael Crossland who won the National Lottery in 2008 have helped organiser Christmas lunch for volunteers.
Susan: We’re just the same as we were before, but obviously Michael doesn’t have to go out to work now so we spend more of the day together. We’re like best friends. We’ve always been big kids and best friends but we see more of each other so we do more things together which is nicer.
Michael: The worst thing is - like you said - because you spend a lot of time together, obviously when I went to work, you’d come home and you always had a tale to tell each other. I think it’s that that you miss out on sometimes.
Susan: Yeah. Still do the birthdays, same numbers.
And now we’ve won the lottery and we’ve got a bit more money, we do the EuroMillions as well - stretched it a bit further.
Plus, it’s nice to know that yeah, you do the lottery for yourself to win money, but it’s nice to know that the money that you put on the lottery also goes to good causes as well.