04 Nov Life-Changing Friday Night for Young Essex Man Who Reveals £250,000 Scratchcard Win
A heavy plant operator from Great Leighs has enjoyed the ultimate Friday feeling after he revealed a £250,000 top prize on a National Lottery Scratchcard.
The lucky winner, George Bates (23), was about to enjoy his first Friday night pint when he played the £250,000 Gold Scratchcard and discovered his win. He commented,
“That first pint on a Friday is always something to look forward to – even these days when we are social distancing – but I can tell you, winning £250,000 into the deal makes it quite a bit sweeter!
“I’d literally just got a pint and sat down at my table when I remembered the Scratchcard I’d bought a bit earlier at the village Post Office. As I revealed the £250,000 prize symbol I leapt up and started to shout and cheer, I was buzzing!”
With the pub manager rightly sticking to current rules, George was told to sit back down at his table, and asked what all the fuss was about. When George showed him the winning Scratchcard the manager, along with the rest of the pub, cheered at George’s good fortune. George said,
“I’d bought the Scratchcard earlier that day, shoved it in my pocket and carried on. I can’t believe I was jumping in and out of the car and all the time with the equivalent of £250,000 in my pocket. Once I’d seen what that little piece of card was worth, I pretty promptly downed my pint and headed home to tell my mum and give it to her for safe keeping.”
George continued, “Telling my mum was epic, my brother was there too, and we were just whooping and shouting. I think my mum was in total shock. In shock or not, as soon as I confirmed the win with Camelot and signed the back I gave the Scratchcard to my mum for safekeeping, knowing it was definitely safer with her than me! It was an amazing feeling all weekend, rounded off nicely with me being able to treat my mum and two brothers to a slap-up Sunday lunch at the pub.”
George is now making plans for his future. He said,
“This really is a life-changing opportunity for someone of my age, and if I do it right, it will help set me up for life. I’ve just completed a training course so I am licensed to operate larger machinery, now I can go self-employed almost immediately. Long term, I’d like to travel, there’s a crazy plan to maybe go to North America and drive diggers in the goldfields. Given my luck on this Scratchcard, maybe I should try my luck there!
“But in the short term, I’m going to put it all into investments, keep living with my mum and brothers, but keep a little back to make life a bit easier for us all. Maybe a few more meals out – when that’s safe to do again – and I’m thinking a hot tub for the back garden would be nice too.
“It’s been a rubbish year, this is a pretty awesome way to finish it off, we’re going to have one hell of a Christmas!”
George’s winning £250,000 Gold Scratchcard from The National Lottery was bought at Great Leighs Post Office on Main Road in Chelmsford. The £250,000 Gold Scratchcard offers a 1 in 3.99 overall chance of winning a prize. The card costs £2 and prizes range from £2 up to the top prize of £250,000.
Players can check their tickets online at www.national-lottery.co.uk or via the National Lottery app. Playing online via the website or app means that your ticket is checked, and you get an email notification if you win a prize. You can also scan your retail tickets on the National Lottery app to check if you’re a winner.
By playing any National Lottery game, players help to raise an average of £30M every week for National Lottery Good Causes across the UK. This money helps support arts, community and charity, heritage, education, environment and the sport sectors – everything from the local charity making a difference where you live through to helping our nation’s athletes win Olympic and Paralympic gold medals. To date, more than £41BN has been raised and distributed to National Lottery Good Causes through more than 565,000 individual grants.
This year, thanks to National Lottery players, up to £600M is being used by charities and organisations affected by the impact of the coronavirus outbreak across the communities, the arts, heritage and sport. This includes up to £300M in funding support from the National Lottery Community Fund which is being used to help groups best placed to support people and communities through the crisis – from helping support food banks to causes that combat loneliness and isolation, support for the elderly and projects that aid health in the community
