Many dream of winning a big cash prize by playing the lottery. Some even remember to put it on. Gavin Havery meets some who became rich overnight

BEFORE he became a millionaire, Andy Garth was sound and lighting technician living in a two bedroom flat.

Today he still works, but it is more on his own terms, and he lives in a six bedroom mansion.

He was celebrating his 29th birthday with a flat full of friends on Boxing Day 2012 when he realised he had hit the jackpot.

Andy, from Middlesbrough, says: “I was quite inebriated because it was my birthday and I was having a party. My ticket was on the side and checked it. “When I realised it was a winner I thought somebody had given me it as a joke. “When I realised it was a real one I hid the ticket well out of the way of everyone that was there.

“You cannot describe the feeling. It is out of this world. It took about 24 hours to sink in.

“Winning £1 million has changed my life in so many ways and has given me the chance to set up my own business.”

Mark and Julie Weir, from Darlington, who have two children, a 19-year-old son and 20-year-old daughter, won £2.8 million in 2008.

Mr Weir, a 51-year-old former plastic factory worker, who has recently become a grandfather, says: “It just makes life easier. You do not have to go to work and do the things you want to do. I have started playing golf as a hobby.”

The couple have moved to a bigger house two streets away and have traded their Mitsubishi Spacewagon for a sportier Audi A7.

Most of their holidays are now in their own personal villa in Florida.

Mr Weir says: “The best thing is the freedom it gives you. You just believe it when you have won. You think something must be wrong. Now we just enjoy life.”

Lucky lottery winners from the region met recently at Beamish Museum, near Chester-le-Street to mark 20 years since the launch of The National Lottery.

Former driver Mark Brudenell, 50, of Stockton, who scooped over £900,000 in 1997, says: “We moved house, went on all the holidays and did helicopter flights over volcanoes in the Hawaiian islands and spent Maldives in the Millennium. We did it all then got bored and set up a double glazing company.”

The family has moved from the three bedroom council house in Grangetown to a five bedroom house in Ingleby Barwick and Mr Brudenell has gone from a battered old VW Passat to a Mercedes as his preferred mode of transport.

He says: “Winning the money has allowed me to move on to other things like setting up my company own and now I feel as though I am looking after other people. I am there at 7am every morning and the last to leave on a night. I am very hands on. The best thing is being able to do something I want to do.”

Since the first draw on 19 November 1994, The National Lottery has created 209 millionaires across the North-East including 67 across County Durham and Teesside.

In total, 675 prizes of over £50,000 have been paid out to players.

Kim and Ian McCarthy, from Fatfield, Washington, won £1m on Christmas Day in December 2013.

The bingo caller and Nissan worker said at the time they would still work, but the money has meant they are able to take early retirement and enjoy more free time, with their first grandchild due next year.

Kim, 51, a mother-of-two sons, who both still work at Nissan, says: “We wake up every day and say a little thank you for our incredible good fortune. I don’t think it has changed us as people as such. We are still the same people and enjoy doing the same things. We have just decided to pack in work and to start enjoying it.”