A NURSE, his family and his neighbours are all celebrating this evening after scooping the jackpot in a lottery draw.
Just under 700 people from the greater Reading area have cause to crack open the socially distanced bubbly this weekend, after their postcode – RG2 8 – was drawn in the People’s Postcode Lottery’s monthly Postcode Millions prize.
They are sharing a £3 million prize pot as a result.
And the biggest winners found out about their prizes thanks to a video call from People’s Postcode Lottery ambassador Jeff Brazier.
Zoe Glancy (31) and her husband Russell (30) won £399,454 thanks to her two tickets, while two neighbours each received a cheque for £199,727.
“I can’t believe this,” said Zoe. “Things like this don’t happen to people like us. We’re grafters and have always worked hard for everything we have so to win this kind of money is just unbelievable.”
Zoe and Russell work together on his construction business, and are parents to Keira (6), Jacob (4) and Henry (1).
Zoe plans to spoil her whole family with this win.
“We’ll obviously treat the kids just now but it’s also really important for us to be able to put some money away for their future,” she explained.
“This money means we’ll be able to give them such a great start.”
Zoe and Russell had initially considered carrying out some renovations on their current house but now have some new plans following their win.
“We love this house but as the family has grown we need more space and this win will definitely help us buy a new house with a bigger garden for the children,” said Russell.
Zoe added: “A new house would be great, but we would also really love to take the children to Disneyland in Florida so hopefully next year we’ll be jetting off on a family holiday to America.”
Zoe signed up to play People’s Postcode Lottery because of the money that goes to charities. She said: “We didn’t sign up to win, we did it to be able to give to the huge number of good causes that People’s Postcode Lottery support.
“It’s not just people like us that can win, it’s the charities that are winning too.”
Despite their win Russell will be going back to work but the couple have decided to celebrate tonight with a take-away and champagne.
Also receiving a cheque was teacher Amy Ellis (32), who was accepting the cheque on behalf of her husband Daniel (38), a senior nurse at the Royal Berkshire Hospital.
Amy was at home with her eight-month-old daughter Mia when Mr Brazier called to inform her that Daniel had won £199,727.
Amy said: “This is just amazing. I can’t believe we’ve won this amount of money; I wish I had someone to hug right now.”
Daniel was at work at the time of the call, and Amy said that she wasn’t expecting to be able to tell him about the win until later that day – but there was another surprise for her, as he was able to join the call and learn of the win straight away.
“We never expected to win this amount of money,” Daniel said, adding that there was another reason why today is special:
“It’s Amy’s birthday today and we’d planned to have a small celebration tonight but now we’ve got even more of a reason to be celebrating.
“We’ll definitely have a big party when we’re able to see everyone again and my parents live in Spain, so we’re desperate to get over to Alicante to see them.”
Amy, who has just finished her maternity leave, has already started thinking about what else they will use the money for.
“This has really come at the perfect time. We’d love to do some work to the house and also treat Mia.”
Dan explained what made him sign up to play People’s Postcode Lottery: “I wanted to find an easy way to give something back to charities and the fact that we could also win was great.”
The third winner, who also won £199,727, chose to remain anonymous.
The other 694 winners from Reading received cheques ranging from £2,771 up to £11,084, depending on how many tickets they play with.
Entry to the People’s Postcode Lottery costs £10 a month and there are guaranteed winners every day. People play with their chosen postcode and are automatically entered into all draws.
Mr Brazier said: “Congratulations to Zoe and Daniel, and to all the other winners in Reading.
“I would have loved to have been able to present our winners with their cheques in person, but it was so great to meet them virtually and it sounds like they’ve all got exciting plans for their winnings.
“I hope all of our winners have the chance to celebrate this weekend and share the news with their family and friends.
“It’s such a shame that we’re not able to meet all our Postcode Millions winners at the moment but we’d still love to hear from them. When you receive your cheque, share a picture with us on social media and let us know how you’re going to spend the money.”
One of the other People’s Postcode Lottery ambassadors is Reading-based singer Danyl Johnson.
The Lottery also raised funds for good causes: a minimum of 32% from each ticket goes to charity and more than £500 million has been raised so far.
This month’s Postcode Millions draw was held on behalf of Postcode Innovation Trust, which supports charities who wish to deliver innovative, impactful and engaging projects across Britain.
Local charities in the Reading area have benefitted from funding raised by players too. The Living Paintings Trust received £10,000 last year for their Touch to See Books project, allowing them to create a free library of books designed for visually impaired children.
Reading Mencap received £9,153 last year to run group exercise classes for adults with learning disabilities.
The classes help participants keep fit whilst also improving their mental well-being.
To find out more, visit www.postcodelottery.co.uk
