I bagged £13.5M and went to Butlins
A LOTTERY winner who landed £13.5m has revealed how his family went from working at McDonald’s to driving Range Rovers.
Modest Peter Congdon, 71, won the life-changing sum in May 2015.
And he celebrated with a cup of tea and a pre-planned trip to Butlins.
The pensioner was living in a council estate in Truro, Cornwall, when his numbers came up and loves the community so much he pledged he would “go back in a shot – I loved living there”.
Despite becoming a millionaire overnight, the first thing the kind-hearted former councillor splashed out on was a £1m hydrotherapy pool for the Merlin MS Centre that had cared for his late wife, Rosemary.
And although he treated himself to a fleet of supercars, he regularly lends them to local schoolchildren for their school proms in return for a donation to the MS centre.
Grand-daughter Katie Venton, 29, said she went from serving up Big Macs to driving a swanky Range Rover.
She admitted the family had to go public with their win because their sudden fortune was obvious to all their pals.
She said: “How could we come from somewhere like the Trelander estate and no-one find out?”
But since going public the entire family have been flooded with begging let- ters. Peter’s daughter Helen Venton, 48, said they had been swamped with bizarre requests – with one man even writing to them to ask for a coffin for his own funeral.
She said: “We received the first letter on the actual night of the win – a woman wanted help paying off her husband’s gambling debts.”
One letter even arrived from Australia addressed simply to: “Peter Congdon, Lottery Winner, Truro, Cornwall.” But Peter says he is not too bothered by the constant demands for money as Camelot handles the admin on his behalf.
He said: “Camelot were great, offering us a financial adviser and which banks we should use. “They also respond to the begging letters if we forward them.”
The Star Says: Page 6