YEAR AGO DAVID WAS ABOUT TO DIE, NOW HE’S WON £185,000!
How life has changed for the people in a Welsh
IF YOU’D have asked David John Price what the best moment of his life was before this week he’d have been scratching his head. The 65-year-old former coal merchant has grafted all of his working years but admits he has “never been a lucky man”.
After losing his sister nine years ago, his son died last year while David was recovering from Covid-19 and sepsis which had consigned him to weeks in intensive care last spring. His health became so bad doctors told his family to say their goodbyes as he lay unconscious in bed.
“It’s been bad – really, really bad,” David told Wales On Sunday from his modest home in Rhymney with his beloved pooch Charles and niece Emma Taylor.
On this quiet and unassuming street of ex-council houses just south of Merthyr Tydfil, which residents describe as “largely forgotten”, nine people have won a total of £2.8m on the Postcode Lottery – and David has bagged himself £185,000.
“It’s about time something good happened for people here,” hollered neighbour Linda Greenway, taking a break from trimming the hedges of her well-kept front garden. “They all absolutely deserve it.”
On May 28 it was announced that hundreds of residents in Rhymney scooped thousands of pounds in a multi-million-pound postcode lottery. In total, 435 residents each won a share of £3.7m with the People’s Postcode Lottery.
We visited the area to find out how life would change for people in the area following the huge win, and after what David has been through no one could begrudge him a dose of fortune, and he couldn’t be happier.
“This is the best time of my life – definitely,” he said, admitting the news still hasn’t sunk in.
“It’s been a hard time over the last few years. I’ve had a triple bypass, I’ve been in and out of the heart failure clinic at Mountain Ash, then I got the Covid and sepsis which they thought had killed me. I went in 20 stone and came out 13 stone.”
Emma explained: “We got the call to come in and say bye to him in intensive care.
“We’d all prepared ourselves for the worst. They told us how lucky he’d been when he came around from it.”
She described the moment he opened his envelope in front of neighbours this week as “absolutely amazing”.
“We were all there with him and everyone was out watching from both sides of the street,” she recalled, excitedly gesticulating outside.
“I was spraying him with angina spray and trying to keep him calm. He didn’t sleep the night before thinking about how much he might have won. I just cried the whole time when he was out there opening the envelope, I had to come in and have a break.
“Honestly, I didn’t think this could have happened to people around here. I’ll be putting mine on now and hoping New Tredegar comes out!”
Asked what he thought when he received the call informing him he was one of the lucky winners, David said: “I thought it was one of those scams – it was like someone was messing with me. I got my daughterin-law on a three-way call with them to see what she thought.
“When she realised it was true she started screaming and I couldn’t stop shaking.
“They said they couldn’t disclose any more information until I opened the envelope the next day.
“When I saw them outside and all the people on the street I started really shaking then. I slowly pulled the card out of the envelope and saw 185 and thought I’d won £185.
“Well when I saw the three zeros, that was it. I just started crying to be honest.”
After putting money on the lottery for years he said his win “couldn’t have arrived at a better time” as the cost of living soars. “I’ve been a scrimper and scraper all my life,” he said.
“I’ve worked hard but I’ve never had a lot of money. I have one of those meters and put £20 on it at a time.
“I have to really think hard about putting the heating on. I would put it on for a bit in the evening at 8pm but it goes off then. The gas and electric has gone up by £700 – I was struggling.
“To think I could put £200 or even £1,000 in that meter and not have to worry about it – it’s a lot to take in to be honest. I’ve never seen money like this, I’ve never thought about having money like this.”
Has he thought about how he’ll spend it? “Not really, no. I haven’t been able to yet. I’ll go to Turkey for 10 days and take my daughter-in-law and son and granddaughter. After that I’ll just see what happens and have a think.”
A few doors down, husband and wife Geraint and Mary Brooks have also won £185,000. Mary, a 62-yearold shop assistant at a petrol station in Tredegar, can now retire three years early.
“It’s life-changing,” she beamed. “I’ve put money on for years now. I once won 20 quid on my 60th birthday which was brilliant.
“I won’t lie, I thought there was a chance I’d won a couple of grand and I’d have been chuffed with that. When I saw all those noughts it was just disbelief.
“Geraint was with me; he was crying, I kept it together.
“To think I can retire now is wonderful. Everyone knows me in the shop.
“I’m back in tomorrow night and they are all telling me they are missing me because I’ve taken some holiday. I won’t miss work, mind.
“I can pay my mortgage off too, and I may go on holiday. The grandkids are already asking me for stuff. The eldest wants a new computer and the younger one doesn’t want much to be fair – just a nice sweatshirt.”
She said people in the town “haven’t stopped talking about it” since the news broke of their big wins. “It isn’t a wealthy area, it’s big news,” she said.
“Everyone has been going on to my husband giving their congratulations. The people here are lovely people and they’re very happy for us.”
No one won more than Edward “Ted” Owen, who discovered he’d picked up £370,000 from his two tickets. The 76-year-old ex-steel worker who has lived in the town all his life said he was “thunderstruck” over the news.
The grandfather didn’t need to ask twice about where some of the money would be going. Pointing to his Hyundai car outside, he said: “I’ve never had a new car and I’ve had that one for 10 years now.
“I’m going to get a Jaguar, and not only that I’m going to get a brand new one. I’ve always wanted one.
“Some of it will be going to my children and granddaughter too. I don’t spend a lot of money anyway to be honest, as you can see from my clothes.
“I knew everyone who won because we’ve all lived here for years. I’m over the moon for all of us.”
Linda, whose sister-in-law and nephew also got £3,000 each, has lived on the street for 39 years and said watching her neighbours receive the money was a moment she’ll never forget. “We’ve never known anything like this before, ever,” she said.
“By the time they were out seeing how much they’d won word had got around what was happening and lots of people were here watching, but no one realised how much money it was until they opened the envelopes. When Ted pulled the second one out I just thought: ‘Oh my God.’
“It was brilliant because Ted is such a nice, kind and hardworking person. As is everyone else who has won on the street. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of people.”