Peterborough has been named one of the top 10 luckiest places in the UK for National Lottery millionaire winners, with 142 millionaires created in the Cambridgeshire city since the lottery launched in 1994. Nationwide, more than 8,000 people have become millionaires through the lottery.
Charlotte Peart, from Whittlesey, near Peterborough, was 28 years old when she won £1 million on Lotto Hotpicks in 2018, thanks to a £1.50 ticket. "I went to deposit £10 into my online lottery account, and saw there was £1.50 sitting in there, so I used that to get a ticket, and it happened to be the winning draw," she told the Mirror. "It was definitely a £1.50 well spent - and it was pure luck."
A Dream Realised After Years of Trying
Charlotte, now 36 and a mother of three, had been entering the lottery sporadically since she was about 19. Her husband of 13 years, Daniel Peart, 35, had told his mum from a young age, 'I'm going to win the lottery one day'. In 2018, that dream became reality for the couple, who have been together for 15 years and share three children aged 18, 14 and 13.
It took time for Daniel to believe they had won, especially since just two weeks earlier Charlotte had pranked him into thinking they had won on a scratch card. Daniel only began to accept it after seeing the winning amount in the lottery account and Charlotte called to clarify. Even Charlotte initially thought the jackpot was an advertisement, not their winnings.
Overwhelming Emotions and a New Home
Charlotte described the win as "overwhelming" and a "feeling that you can never forget". "I don't even think you can describe it in 1,000 words, because there are so many emotions you feel. You want to laugh, cry and scream, there are so many feelings that go through your mind, but all I could think was, 'Our lives are about to change'."
Once the £1,000,000 was deposited, the couple looked for a house big enough for their family of five. "We just wanted a house big enough so that the children could have their own bedroom; that was the one thing we were adamant on doing," Charlotte shared. A house came up for sale in Whittlesey, an area Charlotte had loved since childhood. "We didn't want to move too far, and I've always loved it in Whittlesey, so it was a bit of extra luck that the house came on the market." They moved into their dream home in November 2018, three months after the win.
The family also booked a three-day "magical" trip to Lapland in December 2018, four months after winning. "The house and holiday were the two things we were really pleased about, and we wouldn't have been able to do them without winning the lottery."
Sticking to Normal Life and Giving Back
The couple remained adamant about not changing their Christmas budget, even in the year they won. "We could have bought them everything they wanted, but we thought, what are they going to learn from that?" Charlotte said. "We try to live our lives as normally as possible. We believe that if we just behave normally, it helps other people feel normal around us as well. We're just your ordinary people, winners come from all kinds of communities across the UK, so it's pure luck, and it can happen anywhere."
Kathy Garrett, Winners Experience Lead at Allwyn, operator of The National Lottery, commented: "One of the things we love most about The National Lottery is seeing luck turn up in every corner of the UK. From big cities to small towns, we've celebrated thousands of life-changing wins over the years, and these figures show that there is no single postcode for luck. More than 8,000 people have become millionaires since launch, and every draw creates the possibility that the next big winner could come from anywhere."
Charlotte, who grew up in Whittlesey, said: "I do know a couple of other winners in the area", adding "there's a lot of good in this town". She described the town as "such a lovely little town, and it is vastly growing, but it's a place I want my children to grow up, everyone is so welcoming, and everyone is always looking out for each other."
After going public with the win, she noted the community's reaction: "When you go public with something like this, you do have that slight worry, what if someone is particularly jealous, but everyone has just been really great with us. A lot of people have actually said, 'It couldn't have happened to a nicer couple'." People would joke, 'Can I just touch you for a bit of luck?'. "It's a major thing that changes your life, I don't think it will properly sink in," Charlotte said.
Recently, Charlotte has been helping the community, including launching a Ladies Circle group in her hometown. "The town has supported us through it, so it's giving back, and the lottery has allowed me to do it because of the position I'm in, as I don't need to concentrate so much on working and providing. Without the lottery, it could have taken me longer to get to this point."
The top 10 luckiest places for millionaire winners are: Birmingham (234), Belfast (202), Glasgow (178), Sheffield (171), Liverpool (166), Manchester (163), Newcastle (154), Cardiff (144), Peterborough (142), and Leicester (127).
