So what’s really six dinner ladies a £25m lotto
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A GROUP of former dinner ladies who scooped £25million on the lottery say the windfall has not changed them at all – and one of them is still driving a 15-year-old Honda.
A year on from winning £25,476,778.30 four of the syndicate of six, from Port Talbot, south Wales, have revealed how little their lives have changed.
Louise Ward, 38, Julie Amphlett, 51, Sian Jones, 55 and Doreen Thompson, 57, all still live in the steel town, shop at Lidl and go on holiday to Tenby.
Whereas many people might be tempted to buy a sports car and a mansion, the caterers, who spent a combined 120 years dishing out food to patients at Neath Port Talbot Hospital, insisted the money would never change them.
Julie Amphlett, who worked at the hospital for 32 years, said: “I haven’t even moved house, why would I? We don’t know anyone anywhere else?
“I thought about treating myself to a luxury car so I took a test drive in an Aston Martin but it frightened me to be honest, so I still get about in my 15-year-old Honda.
“I might treat myself to a Mini, but that’s about it, I am actually more careful with my money now not less.”
Grandchildren
The fun-loving group revealed they have invested most of their money in their own homes and on their families, buying them houses nearby and spending time with their grandchildren.
They are determined to keep their feet on the ground but admitted they are still coming to terms with the massive win.
Sian Jones said: “It was overwhelming at the beginning. Don’t get me wrong it’s very nice not working, but you do miss the structure and seeing the other girls.
“It was a big part of my life, I have devoted my time to my grandchildren.
“I don’t spoil them though and try to keep them grounded.
“We still shop in Lidl and places like that, even if people do look at you funny sometimes.”
The biggest change for one of the winners, mother-of-two Louise, was marrying her fiance Mark Haran, who has now given up his job at the Tata steelworks.
When she won the money last year, she revealed she had considered quitting the syndicate due to the cost, although it was her numbers which won the jackpot, saying at the time: “Imagine if I’d stopped, we’d never have won.”
Yesterday she was all smiles as she sipped champagne in the hotel where she tied the knot in March.
She said: “It was booked a year before we won the money and we just kept it exactly the same, no bells or whistles, the only difference was we could have more guests on the night and we had a great time. We enjoyed it, let’s put it that way. “We were having the day we wanted anyway just did not have to worry about it. It was nice to just pay it all off and go on a honeymoon to Cancun which we could not have afforded beforehand.” The new-found riches have not meant their partners have given up work. Julie’s husband is still working as a painter and decorator, Doreen’s husband has started a luxury bus company and Sian’s husband is still in his job as an