Whittlesey lottery winners heading back to work

A couple who won £1m on the lottery after spending the last £1.50 in their account will be heading back to work in the new year after an extended break.

Daniel and Charlotte Peart, from Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, said they had taken four months off to spend time with their three children.

Admin worker Mrs Peart, 28, said her boss had told her she could return to work when she was "ready".

The couple matched five numbers in the EuroMillions HotPicks on 28 August.

Mrs Peart used the last £1.50 in their online lottery account to enter the draw.

Since their win, the Pearts have bought two new cars - a Ford Kuga and Mitsubishi Barbarian - been on a family trip to Lapland and moved to a four-bedroom detached house, saying their children had "earned their own bedrooms".

Their family has also grown to include two Labrador puppies.

Mr Peart, 28, who is a self-employed carpenter, said it had been "great" to take a long break and "enjoy some time with the kids".

He added that their win had "really taken the pressure off" and said it was "amazing" to be mortgage-free.

Mrs Peart said it had "always been the plan" to get back to normal in January, but said the couple liked to check-in on the Facebook group for lottery winners so they could "see what everyone else is doing" and "get ideas for the future".

The Pearts, who married in 2013, met several other millionaires at a Christmas party for young carers earlier this month.

They helped man the bar at the festive event, where lottery winners became chauffeurs, bartenders and face painters for the youngsters.

"It's so nice to do something for children that don't get a Christmas," Mrs Peart said.

"We're really Christmassy people, so it's great to be able to give something back."

Former journalists Richard and Cathy Brown, from Ipswich, have travelled the world since winning £6m in 2013.

A trip to Antarctica was "the icing on the cake" for the sailing enthusiasts, who have holidays to Colombia and the Galapagos Islands planned for 2019.

The couple, who are now retired, also hope to do a full season of yacht racing in the North Sea.

Carer Sue Richards, who won £3m on a scratchcard in 2016, regularly puts in 90-hour weeks at work but says she still loves her job.

Ms Richards, who used to live in Canewdon, Essex, moved to Billericay after her win and has used the money to help her children on to the property ladder.

Earlier this year, Ms Richards marked the anniversary of her win by having a bottle of champagne mown into her lawn.

Tracy Field, from Benfleet, Essex, won £2.8m on the lottery in 2008, a year after being diagnosed with breast cancer.

The mum-of-two, who has since beaten the disease, treated herself to a new house and car but otherwise leads a "normal" life.

She spends most of her time looking after her grandchildren, but in 2019 hopes to see more of the world in her "lovely motorhome".