The Struggles of Spending a £6.5m Lottery Win

It’s 23 years since Viv Moss and her partner Kev, won a £6.5 million lottery prize. The couple from Newquay in England recently took part in a beach clean at Crooklets Beach in Bude and spoke about their great win and initially struggling to spend their lottery win.

Accepting their life-changing win was a difficult task. Viv spoke about the early days of their new life. “We were given £500 to tide us over while the rest came through. But at the end of four weeks, we still had the £500 because we didn’t know what to do with even that.”

A new kettle please

If you became a lottery millionaire, what would be your first purchase? For this couple, it wasn’t a car or a house but an expensive kettle. They did move to Cornwall in the end, something only possible because of their win.

Eventually the couple did start spending their winnings. There have been plenty of overseas holidays and Viv finally took early retirement. They’re enjoying a “wonderful lifestyle” and have had “a brilliant 23 years.”

Helping out with other lottery millionaires on Crooklets Beach was important to the couple. Viv loves helping the environment and the past 23 years has seen them make many charitable donations.

More than a lucky dip

Also helping out on the beach were Taryn and Grant Hawkes from Cornwall. They won £1 million in 2018, though Taryn initially thought they’d just won a lucky dip. She even missed the email that told of their big lottery win.

Grant asked his wife to scroll back up the page but even then, believed they’d only won £1,000. Then more digits were seen but until phoning Camelot, thought it might be a scam. When their win was confirmed, it was time to scream so loud the whole street probably heard it.

Their win came at just the right time as Grant was ill and it was feared he might spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Thankfully, that hasn’t been the case and the couple even went on their first overseas holiday with Majorca being the destination.

Get your weekend tickets online at Lottery24!