WE QUIT! NHS DINNER LADIES DISH UP A £25M LOTTO WIN
SIX hospital dinner ladies say they’ll never work again after scooping more than £25million on EuroMillions.
Nicknamed the Catering Girls, the syndicate won £25,476,778.30p – more than £4.2million each.
Some are now planning a trip to Las Vegas, but one just wants a new tumble dryer… spray-painted gold.
Julie Saunders, 56, asked her husband, Alwyn, to pick up the ticket in Port Talbot, South Wales, as all but one of the members were working.
The next day, the couple were visiting Julie’s father in a residential home and he told her that one ticket had won last Friday’s jackpot.
Mother-of-two Mrs Saunders told him: “It could be us, as we haven’t checked yet.”
After returning home and checking the numbers, she called Camelot, before informing her colleagues at Neath Port Talbot Hospital – who quit their jobs. Mrs Saunders continued: “We used to be dinner ladies – now we are winner ladies.”
One member of the syndicate, Louise Ward, 37, joined only in October last year and it was her numbers that won the jackpot.
“I was thinking about stopping playing earlier in the year as I have been saving up for my wedding in March and needed the extra cash,” she said. “Imagine if I’d stopped – we’d never have won.”
The six syndicate members are Mrs Saunders, Ms Ward, Doreen Thompson, 56, Jean Cairns, 73, Sian Jones, 54 and Julie Amphlett, 50. They agreed to start playing together after
chatting one Sunday morning and deciding they were feeling lucky.
Mrs Saunders and Mrs Cairns believed they would win big one day and become millionaires.
The winning numbers were 5, 12, 17, 33, 41 and lucky stars were 4 and 9.
The women yesterday spoke of their plans to splash the cash.
Mrs Saunders said: “We have always said when we win we are going to Vegas, and now we can do it.”
She added: “This win is lifechanging for us all and the size of the win is still sinking in. We are all so emotional but very, very happy.”
Mrs Cairns, from Briton Ferry, who retired from the hospital last year after 38 years as a catering supervisor, said she dreamed of playing the Las Vegas slot machines.
Sian Jones, of Baglan, said quitting “felt wonderful”. “We have dreamed about retiring,” she said.
Ms Ward added: “My tumble dryer broke so I have been renting one because I am saving for my wedding next year, so it could wait until after Christmas, but it has got to be gold now – it can’t be white. I’ll spray it. It won’t be proper gold!”
Mrs Thompson, who lives in Ystalyfera with her family, said: “I’ve got a caravan down in Llandovery, I’ll be going down there.”
Mrs Amphlett, a catering assistant for 32 years, lives in Neath with her husband Christopher.
With her winnings the mother-ofone plans to buy “absolutely everything” – from a new house to handbags and shoes.