We lost almost £144,000 in lottery winnings – it took 22 years but we never gave up
A WINNER of the People’s Postcode Lottery – who this week scooped £12,000 a month for a year – was not always the luckiest.
Retired NHS nurse Meg Carr, 69, and her husband Andy were evicted from their home in 1992 and were unable to buy it back for 22 years.
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The family were forced to give up their home when British Coal successfully obtained a compulsory purchase order.
It was bricked up and abandoned for more than twenty years.
Meg, a mother of five from North Yorkshire, said: “It was heartbreaking to leave. We had a dream for this place, and they didn’t allow it.
“But we never stopped asking to buy it back. And when they said we could have it, it was great.
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‘The windows were all bricked up and some of the children had set part of them on fire. But other than that, it was exactly as we left it, with the wallpaper still on the walls and the children’s stickers still on the bedroom doors. It was very strange.’
The Volkspostcodeloterij is a subscription lottery that raises money for charities.
Players like Meg sign up with their postcode and pay £12 per month.
They will then automatically be entered into each draw, with prizes announced every day of the month.
Meg received her prize after it was announced that her postcode LS25 6HW was this month’s winner of the lottery’s “An Unforgettable Year” prize, with each ticket worth £12,000 a month for a year.
The win meant Meg took home a total of £144,000.
Some of her newly earned money will go towards a new shower, as her family has thrown themselves into transforming their home since the house was returned.
She also wants to treat her five daughters and seven grandchildren, saying, “There are a lot of things on their list that we can check off now.”
Meg’s husband Andy, a truck driver, wants a new excavator to help transform the land around their converted farm – including the bumpy path leading to their home in Sherburn, Elmet.
He said: “I want an excavator to do some work here. The track is terrible at the moment.
“I would like a Volvo or a CAT with a loading shovel. When we bought this house, I had a 20-ton excavator.”
Meg added: “Tilling the land is very time consuming if you have to do it by hand.”
The grandmother said she also plans to donate money to some of her favorite charities, including Cherished Gowns UK, which makes funeral gowns for babies.
How does the People’s Postcode Lottery work?
There is a possibility that players can win large cash prizes with the People’s Postcode Lottery, but how does that work?
The Volkspostcodeloterij is an ongoing lottery with monthly subscriptions where paid tickets automatically participate in all prize draws.
Players can purchase up to three tickets to play in the draws, with each ticket based on their chosen postcode. It costs £12 per month to play.
Prizes are announced every day – and 33 percent of the ticket price goes to charities.
Prizes include £1 million shared in one winning postcode every Saturday, £30,000 for each winning ticket in one postcode every Sunday, and a multi-million pound prize shared in one postcode area every month.
This month Meg won ‘An Unforgettable Year’, claiming £12,000 every month for a year. She can also choose from a range of unique experiences – in the UK or abroad.
The award was promoted on behalf of the Postcode Support Trust, which supports organizations such as Missing People, Depaul UK and Royal Voluntary Service.
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