LOTTO ANGELS
Millionaires’ group knits Christmassy decs for charities
Julie Jeffrey and her creations
WHEN newly made millionaire Debbie Goolding told other lottery winners about her knitted angels idea, it really grew wings.
A group of 52 lucky punters – worth a combined total of more than £100million – have spent the past month in lockdown crafting 1,000 angels for charity.
They have been honing their knitting skills together in Zoom calls after Debbie, 27, came up with the plan.
She was invited to join Camelot’s winners’ Facebook group after scooping £1m on a scratchcard in July this year.
At the time the housewife, married to heating engineer Joseph, 38, had been knitting 3in angel mascots as a way of supporting NHS workers. The mum of four from Aldershot, Hants, said: “When I told the group I was knitting, I thought maybe a few other winners would join in. But it just kept on growing and now there are over 50 of us.
“We’ve got expert knitters through to those who last knitted a scarf for their doll aged eight.
“Everyone has been completely committed and very creative.”
Vicky Ingham, 32, who won a £1m EuroMillions raff le prize in 2017,
wanted to help in memory of her late grandfather. RAF veteran Jim Houghton, 97, died of Covid-19 in April, just four months after moving into a care home. Mum of two Vicky, a secretary from Bishop’s Stortford, Herts, said: “My grandad was isolated at the end, it was really quite sad. “When I found out some of the angels were going to the elderly that was very close to my heart.” Julie Jeffrey, 59, of Watford, Herts, was
partway through knitting her 36th angel when she spoke to the Mirror.
The grandmother of two and husband Chris, 64, won just over £1million in June 2002 as part of a Lotto jackpot.
Julie, a fire station cook, said: “This has been a bad year for many people so I hope we can bring a bit of cheer.”
Their finished angels and fairies are being quarantined in storage for a few days so they can safely be given out in plenty of time for Christmas.
Later this week they will be sent to a Suffolk nature reserve, children’s hospices in Middlesbrough and Liverpool and a charity that supports the elderly in the Midlands.