Swansea ambulance workers celebrate lottery win

The syndicate of ambulance staff are sharing the £1 million lottery windfall after their numbers came up last Friday.

The EuroMillions Millionaire Raffle draw, which coincided with the official London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, has left each paramedic and ambulance service worker £14,492 better off.

The winning syndicate is made up of paramedics and other emergency service staff based at five stations across Swansea.

While some might think the individual cash wins do not represent a life changing amount, syndicate leader Andy Vaughan insisted that for many it was.

Easier life

“People have said that £14,492 is not a life changing sum but for those who are due to get married or are buying a car on finance, that is not true,” he said.

“These are hard times with the economy and some winners have been in tears finding out that life will be a little easier.

“There are a lot of people who are over the moon this week – morale is sky high.”

Staff not lucky enough to be members of the syndicate have also been generous in their congratulations, he added.

But despite their good fortune the syndicate has insisted that work is more important than even a £143 million jackpot win.

“To be honest, I think that even if we won the £143 million jackpot we would still be in to work the next day,” said Vaughan.

“These are jobs that we love.”

Home improvements

Mark Tonkin, 35, who works in high dependency services (HDS), said he planned to save the cash for the time being.

“Although I imagine my wife might well have different ideas,” he laughed.

Sarah Hounsell, 36, another HDS worker, and syndicate member, added: “It’s very boring but I will probably get some home improvements done and share it with my husband and my boys.”

The winning syndicate, led by Mr Vaughan, a grandfather and father-of-three, was set up 17 weeks ago.

Each of the members pay £2 a week for the Friday EuroMillions draw, with £49 being their biggest previous win.