In February 2019, Natalie and her then fiancé Andrew Symes won £1 million in the EuroMillions UK Millionaire Maker draw. There are now 100 National Lottery millionaires, while 669 players have won £50,000 or more on National Lottery games. Just days after becoming millionaires, the couple also welcomed their second child. Their story comes as new data names Bristol as one of the luckiest places in the UK for lottery winners.
Seven years after winning the lottery, the couple spoke about the win, welcoming their daughter a month earlier than expected, and how their whole lives have evolved ever since.
The ticket was for the EuroMillions UK Millionaire Maker draw on Friday 1 February 2019.
Natalie was jokingly waving around some cash from the sale of an old pushchair, pretending they were rich, when Andrew checked the ticket numbers and told her they actually were! It also helped relieve some pressure during the Covid lockdowns, which was nice,” she said. As it was snowing badly, she grew anxious. “I could just see the snow getting worse and worse from our house in Thornbury. I was frantically ringing my fiancé at the time to say that he needed to get home in case the roads weren’t clear and he wouldn’t be able to get back. I wouldn’t have been able to deal with our toddler myself in the snow. It was left on a shelf at home and almost forgotten. “They were all just pipe dreams at the time, but now we’re married and have our own home, and I can do the school runs and see the school plays and, if I’d have been working, I wouldn’t have been able to do all that.
They won the lottery at the right time. The couple were living in a bungalow and owned no property at the time. So a home of their own was the obvious first purchase. By the weekend, they were touring new builds. their daughter Poppy thought this was the best time for her to arrive on Earth, and that too a month before her due date While they were shopping for homes. With lockdowns arriving the following year, Andrew, a payroll supervisor at a pensions firm, might otherwise have spent them working from a cupboard under the stairs. The money also covered the couple’s wedding and a second property, which now brings in extra income. The lottery money changed their lives for the better. Natalie can now be at home with the children, something she thought she’d never manage.