I may be worth £13m but we still go off to Butlin’s
Peter Congdon’s win has made him king of the road, but he lends out the flashiest cars in his fleet to schools, in return for a charity donation A LOTTO winner who scooped £13.5million has told of his caravan holidays and a modest lifestyle, as he gives away a fortune to charity and lends his top-of-the-range cars to schools.
The family of Peter Congdon, 71, went from working at McDonald’s to driving Range Rovers – but not before they enjoyed a family holiday at their favourite Butlin’s resort.
Peter, who won in 2015, said: “That was pre-booked. We’d gone there for the last 30-odd years.
“They said if it’s good enough for a millionaire, it’s good enough for the rest of them.
They took quite a few bookings afterwards!
“We’ve got two caravans up there for us or friends to use.”
Peter spent most of his life on the Trelander council estate in Truro, Cornwall, where he and his late wife Rosemary raised their three children.
He has since moved but remains in the city, is close to his community and loves helping charities.
Although Rosemary never got to enjoy the family’s rollover prize wealth, children Helen, Sharon and Anthony are now mortgage free – and so will be Peter’s 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Ex-councillor Peter said: “I couldn’t believe it then and I still can’t really believe it now. I used to go into shops and think it would be nice to have this and that, but now I can have what I want.”
“Camelot were great, offering us a financial adviser and suggesting which banks we should use. They also respond to the begging letters if we forward them.”
Peter did not splurge on himself immediately after his win, but bought the Merlin MS Centre nearby, which cared for Rosemary, a £1million hydrotherapy pool.
He has now moved to a more affluent area, but is still part of his old community. He said: “I still own the house on Trelander and would go back in a shot – I loved living there.”
Peter bought two BMWs – an i8 and an i3 – a Porsche Cayman, a Bentley, and the last three Land Rover Defenders made.
But he loans his flashy fleet to school events on the Trelander and elsewhere. In return, he asks for a donation to the MS centre.
Peter and his family still receive hundreds of begging emails and letters. Daughter Helen, 48, said: “We had funny letters, including one man who wanted a coffin for his own funeral.
“We received the first letter on the actual night of the win – a woman wanted help paying off her husband’s gambling debts.”
One arrived from Australia, addressed to “Peter Congdon, Lottery Winner, Truro, Cornwall”.
But Helen has not forgotten her hard-up past, struggling to find the money for prom dresses.
Peter’s granddaughter, Katie Venton, 29, who runs a cafe in Truro’s Ferris Town, said: “How could we come from somewhere like Trelander and no one find out? I went from working at McDonald’s to suddenly driving a Range Rover.”
The giant £13,538,113 lottery cheque is displayed at Peter’s home, next to the winning balls in lottery champagne glasses.
He even has the winning numbers tattooed on to his chest as a reminder of his good fortune.
Peter, who bought his winning ticket at the Trelander Post Office and Premier store, was spending £5 a day on scratchcards at the time.
He said: “As I was collecting my scratchcard winnings, I bumped into someone in the shop who said, ‘Make sure you buy a Lotto ticket because if anyone wins that rollover, it’s going to be you’.
“It was definitely my lucky day.”
ENTERTAININGLY pictured with Daniel Craig at the Golden Globes, fellow actor Idris Elba was widely tipped to take over from the former as James Bond when it previously seemed Craig was ready to walk away.
After the current 007 belatedly confirmed in 2017 he was returning for one last film after all, courtesy of a lucrative new pay deal, Luther star Elba, 46, concluded: “I think honestly he and his business team are very clever.”
Mischievously impersonating 50-year-old Craig’s bargaining skills at the time, he cheekily added: “’No, I won’t do it. $150 million? Yes, I will do it!’”
RECALLING her most embarrassing moment when on BBC Breakfast in the 1980s, presenter Lynn Faulds Wood explains: “I remember sitting next to Elton John and demonstrating the safe way to open a corned beef tin because they were the biggest reason for people going to hospital with serious cuts. Elton was watching me when it went wrong and he said, ‘You’ve cut yourself!’ with great glee.”
MEANWHILE, Good Morning Britain’s Piers Morgan is predictably keen to mock BBC Breakfast rivals, after the latter programme’s omission from the upcoming National Television Awards.
“They talk a big game but didn’t make the shortlist. It must be a difficult day for them,” gloats Morgan, before jokily requesting a “moment’s silence”.
BBC rival Dan Walker responds on Twitter: “Congratulations on your nomination. Worth remembering during that moment of silence… at least twice as many people were watching BBC Breakfast.”
MORE than 40 years after she memorably portrayed popular character Frenchie, pictured, in Grease, US actress Didi Conn, appearing in the new series of ITV’s Dancing On Ice, reveals her favourite memory from the 1978 film.
“That has to be the two days I had my own sound stage at Paramount Studios when they filmed the scenes for the song Beauty School Dropout,” Conn, 67, recalls to TV Times. She adds of her famous teen idol co-star at the time: “Having Frankie Avalon all dressed up in those tight pants [trousers] singing to me, it was not too hard to start drooling!”
DISCUSSING the new series of his show The Grand Tour, Jeremy Clarkson points out one difference will be the absence of studio guests, after executives deemed them surplus to requirements. The 58-year-old adds to TV Times: “That’s the only change, plus the fact I’m fatter because I’ve given up smoking.”