Life changing

Winning aviation syndicate flying high

A syndicate of 15 work colleagues, from H&S Aviation in Portsmouth, are flying sky-high after they scooped £122,898.20 on EuroMillions. Each member of the Victorious Secret syndicate, which has been running for almost a decade, has landed a £8,193.21 share.

Syndicate finally strike it lucky

The syndicate play 15 lines in the EuroMillions draw every Friday. While members of the syndicate have come and gone, they still use the original 15 lines picked in 2009.

Syndicate leader, Jim Filson, said he feels vindicated for his optimism.

“Up until now I’ll admit we haven’t been the luckiest syndicate, with only very small wins here and there, but I’ve always hoped and believed we would come good. I guess fate was testing our commitment – I’m very glad we’ve stuck with it.

“I always check our syndicate numbers on Saturday morning and while I had received an email saying we’d won, I assumed it was another couple of quid. I logged onto our National Lottery account and the account balance hadn’t changed so I assumed it was one big wind up.

“However, when I clicked on the email message thoughts of cruel pranks were put to one side when I saw £1,228. I was really chuffed, until I rubbed my eyes and looked again and instead saw £122,898.20.”

The sky’s the limit

Despite being optimistic of a win, Jim, who has been a credit controller at H&S Aviation for 10 years, doesn’t yet have plans for his share of the win.

“I don’t have any specific plans but I’m not going to fritter it away. It will go on something tangible so I can say ‘our lottery win paid for that’.”

Other lucky syndicate members have plans for holidays to exciting destinations including Florida, New Zealand and Japan; a new car, a honeymoon, a boiler and a wedding.

The Victorious Secret syndicate chose to celebrate their win together at HMS Victory in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

What a boost!

Still smiling at the sudden change in fortunes for the Victorious Secret syndicate, Jim said the best part was sharing the experience with his work mates.

“While I always dreamt of a win and often had to gee up the syndicate that we’d get one, I guess I never thought it could be this big. Sharing this money with the syndicate is a wonderful experience and I can really recommend it as a good start and morale boost on a Monday morning.”

18th June 2018

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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