Four workmates who help produce millions of Pot Noodle snacks every year are celebrating a Lotto win of £101,269 after matching five numbers and the bonus ball in last Saturday’s Lotto draw. 

The pals are part of the workforce at Unilever’s Pot Noodle production plant in Crumlin, near Ebbw Vale in South Wales.

Rob Bailey, leader of the syndicate, said: “We’re still shaking with shock! It’s a thrill to win something like this as a group.

“Our friends and workmates have been really pleased for us; in these hard times around £25,000 each comes as a big boost.

“It’ll make life a little more comfortable for us all. A couple of us are looking at changing cars, one will probably upgrade his caravan and one will get new windows for the house.”

The quartet, all fathers, have been together as a syndicate for just over a year. They always play four lines in the Wednesday and Saturday night Lotto draws.

Aged from 40-59, they are all production operatives with Pot Noodle. They live near the plant in the communities of Blackwood and Cwm.

Rob said: “I watched Saturday’s Lotto draw on TV and couldn’t believe it when five numbers and the bonus ball came up.

“I phoned my brother Dean but didn’t have the others’ numbers so I told them the next day.

“I couldn’t sleep on Saturday night – I only managed half an hour before starting a 12-hour shift at the Pot Noodle factory. I don’t know how I got through that – it must have been the adrenalin rushing.”

This is by far their biggest win and they intend to continue playing.

The winning ticket was bought at a convenience store in Canning Street, Cwm.  Rob’s syndicate colleagues are his brother Dean, Steve Stinton and Alan Dodd.

Former delivery driver Derek, 64, and wife Dawn Ladner, 65, won £958,284 in July 2007 after accidently buying two winning tickets for the same draw earning them two shares of the £2,395,710 jackpot.

The couple presented a luxury hamper full of festive treats to Redruth resident Nathan Thomas, 28, who gave up his kidney, and with it his rugby career, to save his daughter Oceanna who was born with only one kidney.

Undergoing surgery and dialysis within the first week of her life Oceanna has been in and out of hospital ever since. After finding out he was an almost perfect donor match, Nathan didn’t hesitate to give his kidney to his brave daughter.

An avid rugby player for both Redruth Rugby Club and Cornwall U20s, Nathan was advised to hang up his boots after the operation, which took place on 5 October when Oceanna was just six years old.

After spending weeks recovering in the Bristol Children’s Hospital Renal Unit, Oceanna was allowed home just in time for her seventh birthday. Nathan has since set up The Oceanna’s Grand Appeal which raises funds for Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Appeal in support of the Bristol Children’s Hospital. The hamper will be auctioned off in the New Year to raise money for the Appeal.

Nathan said: “We would like to raise as much money for the Wallace & Gromit’s Appeal to say thank you for treating our daughter Oceanna and giving her a better quality of life, and to ensure other children and parents have the support that we had.

“I’d like to thank Derek, Dawn and the National Lottery for their kind gesture.”

Derek and Dawn presented Nathan and Oceanna with the hamper at the Redruth Rugby Club. Derek said:

Derek said: “It gave me great pleasure to help Nathan raise funds for the Wallace & Gromit Appeal. I have known Nathan for a considerable number of years, so it was nice to be able to use my lottery win to help out locally.”

Nicola Masters, director at Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Appeal, said: “This is a lovely gesture by the lottery winners. We hope that people will be inspired by Nathan and Oceanna’s story and will bid generously for the hamper to raise valuable funds to help young patients like Oceanna treated at Bristol Children’s Hospital.”

As part of The National Lottery’s Millionaires Month which will see 50 millionaires made in the UK throughout December including 25 this Friday (23rd Dec), Edd and Michelle tell us how winning the lottery has changed their lives over Christmas.

The lucky couple banked a £1,925,567 share of the Lotto Rollover jackpot in August 2008 after buying a ticket online.  First on their shopping list was a brand new home which they moved in to just before Christmas that year.

Michelle, 42, said: “Christmas has changed for us since winning the lottery especially the first year. I went a bit mad buying loads of presents and we had all the family around to the house which we’d only just moved in to. We didn’t have a big enough dining table or enough seats so we borrowed chairs and tables from the village hall. I spent a lot on everyone that year and loved it. I have calmed down a bit and have a set budget for family presents but it’s still more than we could have afforded before the win.

“We’ve now got a dining room table which seats 12 – which is just as well because it’s my turn to cook Christmas lunch again!

“I love having the entire family round and no doubt we’ll end up on the karaoke machine and playing pass the parcel by the evening.”

After winning the lottery Edd went part time in his role as a computer engineer for the probation service, while Michelle was able to give up her job as a store manager allowing her to take up charity work.

Michelle said: “I am heavily involved with Canine Partners which trains dogs to assist people with disabilities. I recently organised a Christmas charity quiz night which raised £266 and I’m hoping to make it an annual event.

Michelle and Edd also take in puppies to train up for the charity, a massive commitment involving training the dog for 24 hours a day for 12 months.

Michelle said: “We took in a golden retriever puppy, Xagan, last year when he was eight weeks old and spent the year teaching him to pick things up, open doors, retrieve things and even empty the washing machine. We gave him back last month and he’s currently completing his assessment, after which he’ll go on to the advanced training program. On 14th November we took on a new puppy, eight week old Holly.

“As she needs constant company it’s not advisable for us to take her Christmas shopping so I was very organised this year and bought all my presents at the end of October, beginning of November.

“In the past we’ve had five Christmas trees in the house with beautiful decorations, but with the puppy we’ve had to settle for two this year!”

This Friday’s EuroMillions draw (23rd Dec) is guaranteeing to make 25 people in the UK millionaires overnight, after already making 18 millionaires on 25th November and combined with the single millionaire it makes every Tuesday and Friday draw, the Lottery will have made 50 millionaires in total in what they are terming Millionaires Month.

A National Lottery spokesperson said, “This has been a month of creating overnight millionaires non-stop which means 50 new millionaires will see out 2011 in style! EuroMillions Millionaire Raffle has already contributed more than 166 millionaires to the total of more than 2,700 created by The National Lottery to date – now a further 50 millionaires are guaranteed to join that exclusive club before Christmas.’

An exclusive gathering of some of the region’s biggest National Lottery winners took place today (Wednesday, July 6th) celebrating the creation of over 150 National Lottery millionaires in the South West of England*. In total, over £820 million has been paid out in major prizes in the South West of England since The National Lottery started in November 1994.

The street party themed summer gathering, which took place at Chewton Place was attended by lottery winners, both old and new, from across the region.

These included Michael and Barbara Ayers from Gloucester, who banked £4.4million back in 2005, Paul and Denise Hardware from Somerset who won £4.9 million in 2007, and chef Neil Baker, who scooped a £1.5 million jackpot in February this year.

They were also joined by Edd and Michelle Edwards, winners of £1.9 million in 2008, and their dog, Xagan, a golden retriever puppy who is being trained as a guide dog through the couple’s supported charity, Canine Partners.

The event also marked an incredible 29,028 National Lottery grants to Good Causes in the South West region, totalling £1,663,829,740. These included grants to A Time Traveller’s Guide to Bristol, SS Great Britain and The Southwest Regional Talent Centre.

As part of the celebrations, the National Lottery released further research on the happiness of winners*. Not only has The National Lottery changed the lives of millions of people across the UK, lottery jackpot winners report that they get even happier as time passes after their win.

Dr Richard Tunney from University of Nottingham has exclusively examined the effects of a lottery win on 131 jackpot winners for the last five years and compared the results to a group of people who hadn’t won the lottery.  Lottery winners say they are more satisfied with their lives over time while the group who haven’t won are experiencing the opposite. 

Dr Tunney found that people who win have an immediate increase in happiness that is similar to retiring, buying a dream car, having cosmetic surgery or getting married – but, unlike winning, the feeling of happiness from these experiences reduces over time and they soon return to previous levels.

On the other hand, Dr Tunney discovered that similar to winning the lottery, other life events such as having your first child/ grandchild, learning to ride a bike, becoming your own boss, stopping smoking or running a marathon continue to make you feel happier over time.

For those with their fingers crossed for a Lottery win, in tonight’s (Wednesday 6th July’s) National Lottery draw is an estimated £2.2 million.  Friday night’s EuroMillions jackpot is an estimated £154 million.

Lotto millionaires Edd and Michelle Edwards popped in to their local Sainsbury’s in Sherborne today to wish shoppers luck with tomorrow night’s £113million Euromillions draw