A retired granddad who scooped up this year’s LOROS Winter Draw top prize of £10,000 has given the money to his children to treat themselves.
Mr Harris, of Rearsby, was revealed as the lucky winner of this year’s jackpot more than a decade after he started supporting the Hospice.
The 73-year-old said he could not believe it when he was rung up and told the good news by the LOROS Lottery team.
“Now there’s winning and then there’s winning,” said the granddad-of-five, who has been supporting LOROS ever since his uncle was cared for by the Hospice.
“When you send off your tickets, you never think about winning. To me, it’s all about helping people.
“I really couldn’t believe it.”
Mr Harris has already distributed his prize to his three children, who each plan on treating themselves with the money.
“One of my sons is buying a car, the other has his own building firm so the money will come in handy and my daughter is going on holiday to Mexico, so that helps pay for that,” he added.
“When I rang my eldest son, he didn’t believe that I had won it either, I’m a bit of a wind up merchant you see. He said, ‘yeah alright’ and just hung up on me.
“It’s great to be able to give it to the kids though. A lot of people have told me to spend it on myself but as the saying goes, it’s better to give than to receive and I believe that.”
After splitting the money equally with his three children, Mr Harris did manage to buy himself a new suit, which he wore especially to collect his cheque from LOROS.
LOROS Lottery Manager Colette Norman said: “It was a privilege to meet Mr Harris and present him with a cheque for £10,000.
“Winning that much money is so unexpected, it’s always lovely to hear what people’s plans are.”
Former Hollyoaks star and LOROS Patron Charlie Clapham made a surprise visit to the Hospice to reveal the winner of this year’s Raffle, which raised a fantastic £91,027.
“It was brilliant of Charlie to pop in to LOROS and reveal this year’s winning ticket,” added Colette.
“As always, he managed to put a smile on everyone’s face and made sure the event was even more special for everyone there.
“Once again, I’d like to thank everyone who bought a ticket this year, the money raised will make such a huge difference to our patients and their families.”
If you did not manage to get your hands on a ticket for the LOROS Winter Draw, the Summer Raffle is just around the corner. Keep your eye on loros.co.uk/raffle for more details.
