Life changing

Best buddies from Tyne & Wear share £15.3M Lotto jackpot

Best friends from Tyne & Wear say they still can’t believe they are multi–millionaires! The lucky pair, who scooped the £15.3M Lotto jackpot on Saturday 18th February, are now drawing up an extensive shopping list that includes a dream First Class trip to Vegas and an all – important frying pan!

Paula Barraclough, 45, and Lorraine Smith, 54 – known to each other as ‘Polly and Lolly’ – say they can now live the life they always dreamed of after their life changing win.

Lucky twist of fate

Lorraine, who works as a cook in a care home, described the moment she went out to buy what turned out to be the winning ticket: “I always stay at my mum’s house on a Friday night. I was full of cold when I woke up on Saturday morning and went out to head to the bus stop at 5.30am for my journey to work. The bus didn’t turn up and I really needed to get warm.

“I discovered I had a £2 coin and some loose change in my pocket so I popped into the local shop and bought a Lucky Dip ticket for Lotto. Never did I believe fate would play a hand – the bus being late would result in my life being changed forever.”

Paula, who works in a coffee shop and lives at home with her parents, described the moment Lorraine called her to tell her they had won the jackpot.

Paula said: “I was in bed on Sunday morning and the phone rang at 7.15am. Lorraine never calls me that early. I picked up the phone and said to her: ‘You better be calling me to tell me we have won the lottery waking me up at this time!’

“And the voice on the other end of the phone replied: ‘We have! We have all six numbers!’ I just fell silent – I couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing.

What now for the fortunate friends?

Paula and Lorraine, who have been friends for more than 17 years, said the news of their win is still sinking in – and despite both of them banking £7,671,450 each, after matching all six numbers, neither of them has any intention of giving up work.

One of the first things Lorraine intends to buy is a new frying pan. She said: “I literally threw my old frying pan away the day before I became a multi-millionaire so a new frying pan will definitely be one of the first things I will be buying! I certainly won’t be giving up work – I have people who rely on me and who I need to cook for. This is the reason I went straight into work after discovering I had won – there is absolutely no way I would ever let these people down.”

Lorraine, who has a son, Lewis, 23, lost her husband six years ago. Top of her shopping list, after the frying pan, is a new car for Lewis and new windows for her house.

Paula said: “This win is life changing, it means I will finally be able to move into a house of my own, rather than living with my parents and I can start to write my dream shopping list.”

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.

Discover more
Please wait