■ THE STREET WHERE NEIGHBOURS HAVE WON BIG!
NEIGHBOURS ALL SCOOP BIG WINS ON LOTTERY
A YOUNG couple are planning their “perfect” wedding and honeymoon after winning £90,000 on a lottery.
Dale Gilchrist and Hannah Topliss, of Wigston, will tie the knot in style after scooping the money on the People’s Postcode Lottery.
The lucky couple were among 11 neighbours in Wigston celebrating after winning a total of £360,000 with their winning postcode.
Dale and Hannah have pocketed a combined £90,000 after playing with three tickets between them.
The couple are now planning for a wedding, honeymoon and a big family holiday to Sardinia after getting engaged two months ago.
This is the second lottery win for the family after Hannah’s father won £25,000 in 2015.
The couple found out how much they had won on a video call with lottery ambassador Danyl Johnson.
Hannah and Dale Gilchrist, both 28, were together when their prizes were revealed.
Dale shouted “Yes!” in delight after seeing his £30,000 prize.
Hannah was left shocked after her cheque for £60,000 appeared on the screen. She said: “Oh my goodness. Wow! Thank you so much, I’m shaking.”
Dale added: “I think we’ll have smiles on our faces for the next year.”
The engaged couple have a wedding planned for August 2023 and are now looking to add more people to their wedding party.
Hannah laughed and said: “The party has just got bigger!”
Dale said: “We now have time to plan out the day we want, the perfect day as well as a honeymoon would be great, because we need a holiday.”
Hannah is a nursery teacher and has been working throughout the pandemic, while Dale has been working from home in an accounts team for a retail company.
She said: “It’s a big weight lifted, massively. We can create lots of memories with the money and do lots of things to make up for lost time from the last year.
“The last year has been hard with the little ones because we’ve been wearing masks and visors while we’ve been working. It’s been really quite challenging.”
The couple also are now looking at treating their family and going on a long-awaited holiday to Sardinia.
Hannah said: “We haven’t been on holiday for a long time, we finally booked a cruise and that got cancelled. We want to visit Sardinia with the family just before the wedding and this will help massively.”
Dale laughed and said: “It can be our treat now.”
KENRICK PILGRIM
Near neighbour and father-of-five Kenrick also punched the air in celebration after finding out that he had won £30,000.
After his cheque was revealed, he said: “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Wow, wow, wow! I’m blessed.”
The 51-year-old bus driver’s first thoughts turned to his daughter’s birthday next month.
“It’s my daughter’s 16th birthday,” he said. “It’s going be a great month, she’s going to be blown away and it’s my birthday as well.”
Kenrick hasn’t seen her for more than 18 months as she lives in Antigua and he’s eager to do so once travel is allowed.
“I normally travel to Antigua every year but because of the pandemic, I haven’t seen her since 2019,” he said.
After a tough year, the win has come at the right time for Kenrick and his family and he couldn’t wait to surprise his wife, Clover, with the news.
“I can definitely sleep easy. I surprised my wife when she got home from work.”
STACEY BALL
Stacey was another neighbour to take home £30,000.
Stacey had tears in her eyes after her winning cheque was revealed and said: “Wow, thank you.”
The 31-year-old said: “I don’t think I’ve ever had that amount of money – it’s absolutely amazing.”
The mum-of-two, who works in a local school, plans to treat her teenage daughter and son with the winnings and take the family on holiday.
“It’s nice to be able to treat everyone, I think I’ll let the children decide where they want to go on holiday,” she said.
■ The other seven winners chose to remain anonymous.