That’s SUM win!
People’s Postcode Lottery winners in Plymouth
Plymouth neighbours are celebrating their shares of a huge £1 million Postcode Lottery prize.
Overjoyed Billy Hampson, 29, won £90,909 on his and fiancée Amy Tidy’s seventh anniversary.
Now the loved-up pair – set to marry in a romantic barn wedding in Cornwall next June – are planning a Mauritius honeymoon, a new kitchen, and even preparing for babies.
Billy, of Plymouth, said: “I’ve had six days to do some maths, from the day the Postcode Lottery called to say I’d won, and I never once came up with this sum. I’m blown away.
“We’ve gone through every possibility of what we could get. But this just surpasses everything.”
Billy Hampson and fiancée Amy Tidy won a share of a Postcode Lottery prize in Plymouth(Image: Postcode Lottery)
Billy was among eight neighbours celebrating when PL6 5UQ landed the lottery’s weekly Millionaire Street prize on Saturday, February 28. Each ticket was worth £90,909.
One winner, holding three tickets, trebled their windfall to a whopping £272,727, and another person banked £181,818 playing with two.
But Billy revealed his prize might never have happened because he was just days away from pulling the plug on his monthly subscription to save for the wedding.
He said: “Actually, we thought about cancelling our ticket as we cut back on lots of our subscriptions as we’ve got our wedding coming up, so every little helps.
“Luck was massively, massively on our side.”
Gift firm worker Amy, 30, laughed: “Good job you didn’t cancel!”
Billy admitted the thought of what might have been makes his head spin. He said: “Could you imagine if we’d saved our £12.25 and then seen Postcode Lottery walking down the street?”
The couple are also dreaming big for their honeymoon. Before their win, school holidays and tight finances meant they were considering a more modest Italian road trip.
Amy said: “The world’s our oyster. It could be a tropical Mauritius holiday now. It could be Italy. Whatever we want it to be.”
Billy added: “We were thinking a week in Tuscany, maybe a road trip. But now… who knows?”
Since they moved into to their home, the couple have been painstakingly renovating on a tight budget – rewiring, cutting skirting boards themselves and redecorating room by room.
Billy said: “We’ve probably done about a quarter of the house in three years.”
Amy added: “We even cut the skirting boards ourselves. It looks a bit dodgy if you get too close!
“We were going to have the wedding, then save for another five or six years before doing the kitchen. And we also want to have children in that time. This just opens so many avenues for us.
“The house – definitely the kitchen. To hopefully get it done and ready for a family would be lovely.”
She added: “It’s our anniversary. Seven years together. Things have just been lining up this past week.”
Further up their hilly street, emotional Sebastian Kowalski, 48, landed £181,818 by playing with two tickets.
Sebastian Kowalski dropped to his knees in disbelief alongside wife Sylvia(Image: Postcode Lottery)
The humble painter, decorator and general builder runs his own small business – and despite the six-figure windfall, his first thought wasn’t for himself. It was for his wife.
With tears running down his face, he said: “This is for my wife. She doesn’t get around too well and I want to help.”
Overcome, he paused and his wife Sylvia, 48, told him: “I’m fine. I’m lucky. I’m a winner, because I have you.”
Sylvia, who has mobility issues, added: “He never cares about himself. He just wants my life to be better.”
The win came at a difficult time for the couple, who share three daughters – Claudia, 29, Joanna, 22, and Olivia, 20. They had travelled back to Poland for Sylvia’s father’s funeral when the lottery phoned to tell Sebastian he’d won.
Sylvia said: “First Sebastian thought it was scam. We were at a funeral for my father in Poland. Two days before the funeral he got an email. He thought it was a scam. I said, ‘No, just try’.”
She added: “You never think that will happen to you. It’s something incredible. Like a dream.”
The couple, who have been together 25 years and married for 14, moved to the UK 18 years ago to build a better life. Sebastian arrived first to set things up before his family joined him.
Now, thanks to playing twice, he plans to invest straight back into the business he’s worked so hard to grow.
Sebastian said: “I want to buy new machines for my company. A cutter for tiles. Maybe a new drill and a new grinder.”
Sebastian added: “I love cider. I’ll buy cider.”
Anything else? He smiled and said: “Definitely go fishing. I will go fishing back in Poland, yeah. Because I love my country and there is a really great place to do it.”
But once again, he returned to his number one priority. He said: “Definitely help my wife. Definitely.”
Sebastian added: “It’s not only for us. We can share these emotions and this moment with our neighbours. We have the luckiest street in Plymouth.”
Plymouth neighbours celebrated their £1m Postcode Lottery win together(Image: Postcode Lottery)
The biggest winner on the street was Nikki Ford, 37, who won £272,727. Also, among the £90,909 winners were Jackie Haskell, 55, Karen Glanville, 67, Sandra Barclay, 76, and Ian Blackie, 70.
Trevi Women run three centres in the South West: Jasmine Mother and Child, Sunflower Women’s Centre and Blossom Women’s House.
Trevi’s Jasmine Mother and Child family centre in Plymouth(Image: Postcode Lottery)
Amanda added: “This funding will help Trevi Women continue to provide specialist, wraparound support for women and children in Plymouth. Every day, we work with women facing multiple and complex disadvantages – including domestic abuse, substance misuse, mental ill health, homelessness and involvement in the criminal justice system.
“It will support us to create safe, nurturing and trauma-informed spaces where women can recover, heal and rebuild their lives. We’re incredibly grateful to players of People’s Postcode Lottery for making this possible. Thank you.”
