Millionaires have Lotto fun
Flash cars rolled up, designer clothes were donned and the waft of expensive perfume lingered in the air.
But when lottery millionaires from across the West Midlands gathered for a celebration of their wins in Wolverhampton today, most insisted their new-found wealth had not changed them one bit.
Some of the region's biggest winners were at the Mount Hotel in Tettenhall Wood to mark the creation of 166 National Lottery millionaires across the West Midlands.
Among them was Kingswinford great-grandmother Brenda Portch, who scooped a near-£1.5m share of the Lotto jackpot last October.
Today she said she was still quietly living in a three-bedroomed council house in the town, has remained helping out in her friend's cake shop and had no plans to take posh holidays.
The smartly-dressed 67-year-old told how she had bought a new four-bedroom detached home "just around the corner" but had not yet moved in.
"My family have kept my feet on the ground," she said. "I'm just myself and I'll never change. I'll always just be me.
"It's made a big difference to my life but my happiness comes from being able to treat my family and doing things for them that I wouldn't have been able to do before."
Canapes and bucks fizz welcomed the guests at the historic hotel where guests toasted the news that more than £770m has been paid out in major prizes across the West Midlands since lottery was launched in 1994.
Camelot spokesman Julian Fisher said: "We're delighted to be bringing together so much good fortune under one roof.
"We're keen to let lottery players in the region know just how many people have hit the jackpot, and remind them that luck could be just around the corner for them too. Fingers crossed we can create another millionaire in the Midlands in tomorrow night's draw.
Also attending the celebrations was lucky Cindy Williams, who was the leader of a syndicate at a West Bromwich residential home that won £1.9m in 2003.
At first the 10-strong group of colleagues from Nicholl Grange Residential Home believed they had matched five numbers, which would have bagged them around £250 each.
But when Mrs Williams, from Halesowen, went into Supercigs in Cradley Heath to check the numbers, she was flabbergasted to find they had won the jackpot.
The workers picked up £190,000 each. They all put paying off mortgages, buying new houses and cars at the top of their shopping lists.
John Radford, aged 62, and Alf Cole, 61, from Kingswinford were also there.
They won £5,438,971 on the lottery in May 2003.
John and Alf, who had been to school, courted girls and worked together for 40 years took home £2,719,485 each.
And colleagues from Palethorpes pie factory in Market Drayton raised a glass to everyone's success. The 33-strong syndicate shared £6.75m in November last year.