Life changing

Oxfordshire EuroMillions winner takes centre stage

An avid supporter of local arts from the Oxford area is celebrating a £1Million EuroMillions win. She is promising to buy a narrowboat, indulge her passion for the theatre and to, quite literally, light up local theatre stage.

Pam Aird, 58, who will be sharing the win with her partner Alick Alder, 60, won the UK Millionaire Maker and her first thought was to help out some of the drama groups and venues she holds so close to her heart.

Pam said, “I have an absolute passion for theatre and drama. I use to tread the boards myself but in recent years have become more involved behind the scenes in lighting and sound so have seen how antiquated some of the systems we are working with are! My first thought when I won was to upgrade the lighting rig at the Unicorn Theatre in Abingdon, and provide head mics for the Didcot Phoenix Theatre and Synergy Group so our members can give their best possible performance for their audiences.”

Wake up…we’ve won

Pam bought the Lucky Dip ticket on the day of the draw and thought no more of it until the evening when, with partner Alick asleep, she decided to check the ticket.

“I checked the numbers from a news website but seeing these didn’t match, logged onto the National Lottery website to check the Millionaire Maker code. Imagine my surprise when I saw that it matched entirely! I just couldn’t believe it, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me so I then used the facility where you can type in your code, when it matched again and a message popped up congratulating me I started to think it really was happening.”

Dashing into the bedroom Pam woke the sleepy Alick to tell him she’d been rather lucky with the lottery whereupon he mumbled, “what, you’ve won £100?” and his partner of 22 years joyfully responded with ‘it’s quite a bit more than that’!

With the Camelot phone line closed and unable to make a claim until the following morning the pair decide the best thing would be to head to bed but not before Pam put the ticket back in her purse and hid it under her pillow.

“All night I was tossing and turning and it wasn’t the rather unique pillow causing my sleepless night, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the things I’d always wanted to do for friends and the local community and now could do. In the morning I rang Camelot who confirmed the win and then popped to see a local performance of Barnum. Sitting there waiting for the curtain to go up it suddenly hit me that I was a millionaire, it was a magical experience on all counts.”

Bright future

Pam has had health issues which has meant life has not always been easy but she’s now hoping that this win will be able to make the future for her, Alick and those around them, so much brighter.

“Already I have put wheels in motion to pay off debts that I have carried around for too many years and finally make a clean start. Putting things right and helping the local arts in Oxfordshire are the two priorities but I’d be lying if I didn’t say the win will also make a difference to how Alick and I enjoy life.

“We are avid music fans and every year go to Cropredy Festival. We have a wonderful time there but are always a little envious of the festival–goers who arrive via canal boat and, after a full day of fabulous live music, get to crash out on the boat rather than in a two man tent like we usually do. So the search is now on for a narrowboat; and a house in Abingdon where we can moor right outside our backdoor.”

Alongside the investment in a new home and narrowboat, Pam is looking forward to plenty of time watching her three great loves; theatre, tennis and athletics.

“I’ve always tried really hard to find cheap tickets so that I can regularly enjoy a dose of live theatre but sourcing tickets for major tennis or athletics meets is much harder. I will still look for the well–priced tickets but if all else fails, spend a bit more to watch some of the sport I truly love. I’ve already booked for the World Athletic Championships in 2017 so I can finally see Usain Bolt run and front row tickets for the ATT World Finals at the O2 Arena; here’s hoping Andy Murray gets through!”

The National Lottery has been changing the lives of winners and supporting good causes across the UK since 1994. In that time, there have been more than 7,000 new millionaires created and by playing The National Lottery you raise over £4 million for Good Causes every dayΔ.

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