Lottery winners fund giant gingerbread house at Staffordshire Wildlife Trust

The generous winners, who boast a combined wealth of over £12million, turned a wood cabin into the fantasy hut.

They funded the work for the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust at its Wolseley Centre base.

The conversion used more than 100 litres of paint, 60 paintbrushes, 30 rollers, 40 bespoke wooden shapes, six sacks of fake snow and 25 metres of twinkly Christmas lights.

The magically transformed playhouse was opened by excited school children as part of #GivingTuesday.

It is to be used by the trust as a family education facility at the base near to Rugeley.

Julian Woolford, chief executive of the trust, said: "We are really grateful to receive this Gingerbread playhouse and want to thank the local lottery winners for their hard work.

"The building will come into its own next year and start to make a real impact for visitors to the centre.

"We are planning to use it to host children and family events throughout the year to help educate them about their local wildlife.

"It will also help facilitate our education work at The Wolseley Centre.

"I must say a big thank you to all of the lottery winners for thinking of us and for giving up their time."

Over the years wildlife trusts have received several million pounds from National Lottery winners to help towards environmental projects.

Lottery winners helping to create the festive makeover magic in Staffordshire included Neil Jones and Julie Kirkham, from Stoke-on-Trent.

Neil and Julie were lucky enough to win a life changing £2.4m on the lottery in 2010.

Neil said: "Back in 2010 we had an amazing piece of luck.

"I was able to retire early and Julie and I wanted to put some of our spare time and energy to good use.

"I didn't realise so many diverse projects get National Lottery funding.

"While my life has been changed overnight with the win, it's good to know that other incredibly important local projects just like this one are lottery winners as well."