Britain’s most generous winner of the National Lottery says he still checks the price of socks – after giving away most of his £7.6 million jackpot prize.
Ray Wragg, 86, and his late wife Barbara gave away more than £5.5 million of their winnings. As reported by the Mirror, thousands of people benefited from the generosity of the couple who, until they hit the jackpot in 2000, had never even been abroad.
Retired roofer Ray and Barbara, from Sheffield, gave away more than 70 per cent of their winnings. The couple, who received a special trophy from lottery organisers for their philanthropy, helped their family and friends and 17 separate charities.
Barbara, a former nurse, died of sepsis in 2018 at the age of 77. She previously said their winnings were “too much for two people” after her and Ray had spent 31 years on the trot having holidays in Torquay as she was too scared to fly.
However, after their win they took to the seas, making up for lost time by going around the world on 29 cruises. Reflecting on the win almost a quarter of a century on, Ray says the windfall never changed them as people.
Ray told the BBC: “I was working, Barbara was working, the kids were working. We were all right. Like other families do, we saved up. It changed our lives but not us as persons. That’s stood us in good stead. I still look at the price of a pair of socks, you know.”
Ray cracked open a can of Guinness, while Barbara had a glass of wine to celebrate the win before calling their children to announce their news. Sheffield United fan Ray, who was due on a building site in South Wales at 8am the following Monday, then rang his boss to tell him he wouldn’t be there.
Ray, then 62, “effectively retired” from work that night as did Barbara, who had worked night shifts at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital for 22 years by that time.
The first thing Ray did with the winnings was buy a £52,000 white Range Rover and get a passport before the couple set sail on a glamourous cruise around the Caribbean.
They then began their lifetime of philanthropy, which eventually earned them invitations to Buckingham Palace and the Mirror’s Pride of Britain awards.
They went to Sheffield Hallamshire Hospital to pay for a bladder scanner and Weston Park Hospital where their daughter had been treated for Ewing’s sarcoma. The couple also bought 30 television sets so each child in a local hospice could watch TV in bed.
Every Christmas for six years they picked up the bill for taking 250 children from a deprived inner city school to enjoy Sheffield’s pantomime.
Barbara recalls a visit to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital breast clinic in 2010. While waiting for her appointment she noticed a pot for donations and during her consultation she told the specialist she would like to write a cheque.
She said: “He asked me how much I wanted to donate and I told him £5,000. He said: ‘That will keep my young lads in research for a year’.” The couple once helped a group of World War Two veterans on a trip to honour fallen comrades in 2003.
And they paid for 50 war heroes to visit Italy for the 60th anniversary of the battle of Monte Cassino in 2004 after they had failed to secure enough funding.
Good causes they have helped include Meningitis Trust, Macmillan Nurses, Childline, Help The Aged, Help For Heroes, Make-A-Wish Foundation, and Sheffield Children’s Hospital.
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