People’s Postcode Lottery: How Rotherham mum-to-be's £836,000 lottery win will transform her life
A Rotherham mum-to-be who won £836,114 on the People’s Postcode Lottery is still coming to terms with the life-changing win.
Lauren, aged 33, was presented with two cheques for £418,057 each and immediately vowed to split it with her parents.
She said: “I’ll give my mum and dad one and I’ll keep one. It’ll be a straight-up split.”
Earlier in the year Lauren’s mum, Andrea, was diagnosed with cancer and her dad Darren, 58, had a serious stroke.
Now the successful baker, who creates specialty cakes with her mum in a cabin in her back garden, plans to expand her popular Tomo’s Cakes business by opening a shop in Rotherham.
“I’ve had cancer, my mum’s had cancer and my dad had a massive stroke. But we just get by, as you do. It will monumentally change Christmas,” she said.
“We’re so busy with the cakes. We had four yesterday and five booked in for today. But I will carry on doing them. I can buy a shop now, that’s 100 per cent on the cards.”
Lauren’s win came as S65 3QP was announced as the winner of the Postcode Lottery’s Postcode Millions prize on December 14.
Every ticket in the full winning postcode was worth £418,057.
Lauren doubled her win playing with two tickets and three of her neighbours also won £418,057 with a ticket each.
A further 557 players in the wider S65 3 postcode area also won prizes ranging from £24,266 to £97,064, depending on the number of tickets they played with.
This is the second reason for Lauren to celebrate this year as she and her partner, Brandon Banks, discovered they were expecting a baby earlier this year despite doctors saying she might struggle to conceive after a series of cancer operations.
She said: “I had my third operation this year and I didn’t even know if I could have kids. The doctors said I would have difficulty and, if I did get pregnant, I might not keep it. But I’m four months gone today.
“My mum was diagnosed with kidney cancer and had it removed. She’s been given the all-clear. Three weeks after that my dad had a massive stroke, but he’s very slowly getting better.”
After their baby is born in June, the couple hope to go to Thailand and Jamaica on holiday.
Brandon’s brother, Sean, and wife, Rachel, also received a £24,266 cheque. Lauren said it was a no-brainer to split the win with her mum.
She said: “I take her everywhere with me everyday and share everything. My mum and I are absolutely best friends. We go out shopping in the day and drinking at night. We work and live together.
Across the road Audrey Jaeger-Cooper won £418,057 and plans to treat husband Wayne to his dream Batman car. She’s also looking at a trip to the Maldives and she will buy her sister a new front door.
She said: “I would have been happy with £5,000. I’m still in shock, it just means so much and it can help so many people.”
Wayne added: “It’s life-changing, the things you can do with that…endless possibilities. I never dreamt of anything like this before.”
She said: “I want to get Wayne a new car. He keeps looking at a Toyota, the Batman car, in matte black. He’s still driving around an old Ford Focus but he’s happy with that.”
Wayne said: “I’m not a materialistic person but…I just like it, it’s like the Batman car.”
Audrey said: “The dream holiday for me would be the Maldives, but Wayne won’t do a journey longer than four and a half hours because he gets bored on the plane. So, I might have to go on my own.”
Audrey will also share her win with her 19-year-old son Arran, a geography student at Manchester Metropolitan University.
The couple had debated whether to go out for a few drinks after a Rotherham United match the same day.
Audrey said: “We’re definitely going out for drinks now.”
The couple said it’ll be a very merry Christmas are also extending their festive shopping list.
Audrey said: “I might be able to spoil people a bit more now, get them some extra presents. It will be a very merry Christmas for us, and for so many people in Rotherham winning too.”
The big winners later joined hundreds of their neighbours at the nearby Magna Science Adventure Centre to watch them find out what they’d won.
Ambassadors Matt Johnson, Judie McCourt and Danyl Johnson gave them the good news – before Eurovision super-singer Sam Ryder turned it into a celebration party.