A COUPLE who won £185,000 on the lottery have decided to keep taking the bus rather than buy a fancy sports car.
Mary and Geraint Brooks bagged the huge cash prize – but said they won’t be splashing out on a Ferrari.
Geraint and Mary Brooks won £185,000
The pair live on Pen y Dre in Rhymney, south Wales, which has been labelled the ‘luckiest town in the world’
The couple, from south Wales, never got their drivers licence and say they’re more than happy with their free bus passes.
Mary, 63, and Geraint, 60, used £10,000 of the winnings to pay off their mortgage.
Mary, who quit her job as a cashier, said she can now sleep easier at night.
She told HOAR: “I can sleep easy at night knowing I’ve got no mortgage and cash in the bank
“I was working nights for 20 years, so I was ready to give it up.”
Husband Geraint lost his job at a recycling plant two months after his wife’s win.
He said: “I’ve decided I’m taking early retirement too now.
“It is wonderful not to have any financial pressures.
“We’ve hardly touched the winnings.
“We’ve got three children and five grandchildren and we want them to benefit.
“When you turn 60 in Wales they give you a free bus pass, so we’ll just keep on using that.”
The couple’s neighbour Ted Owens also scooped up a huge prize.
After buying two postcode lottery tickets “on a whim”, Ted won £370,000.
The street – Pen y Dre in Rhymney, south Wales – cleaned up in last March’s monthly draw, earning more than £2m.
Retired steel worker Ted, 76, decided to buy two £10 tickets, rather than just one.
He said: “I reckon I’m the luckiest man in the luckiest town in the world.
“I usually buy one ticket but for some reason, I bought two that month and it sure paid off.”
‘LUCKIEST TOWN IN THE WORLD’
He used some of his winnings to take his family of three children, their partners and his granddaughter on a nine-day £15,000 cruise around the Caribbean and South America.
He also wanted to splash out on a brand new £56,000 Jaguar car but the dealers refused to let him have the only one in stock as it was on display in the showroom.
He added: “They said I’d have to wait until another one was delivered to replace it, so I hung on and hung on, and then they told me it wouldn’t arrive for 12 months.
“So I bought a £20,000 Hyundai instead with 2,000 miles on the clock.”
However, he really wanted to spend his winnings on his late wife Coral, who died of cancer eight years ago.
He said: “I’d have spoilt her rotten.
“I don’t suppose the money would have saved her life but we’d have had some fun with it and, well, who knows?”
With no plans to leave his semi-detached home, Ted said the winnings won’t change him.
“I’ve never been an impulsive person and I won’t start now,” he said.
“I’m going to use what’s left of the money to help my family out financially whenever I can.
“Oh, and maybe I’ll buy a new sofa. I might get a new telly too, but it’s still working, so what’s the point?”
Remember to gamble responsibly.
A responsible gambler is someone who:
- Establishes time and monetary limits before playing
- Only gambles with money they can afford to lose
- Never chase their losses
- Doesn’t gamble if they’re upset, angry, or depressed
- Gamcare – www.gamcare.org.uk
- Gamble Aware – www.begambleaware.org
- For help with a gambling problem, call the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133 or go to www.gamstop.co.uk to be excluded from all UK-regulated gambling websites.
Ted Owens bagged himself a huge win after buying two postcode lotto tickets
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