Cumbria's CA postcode is one of luckiest in UK, says National Lottery

Since the National Lottery began in 1994, a total of 203 people have landed a major cash prize of £50,000 of more, meaning about nine Cumbrians a year have been handed a new found fortune. 

Simon Horne, of the National Lottery, said: "It's just fantastic to be able to celebrate luck wherever it is. 

"While you have that ticket in your hand it's very exciting. There are people just like you, living near to where you live, who won significant prizes.

"It's good to know that there are really big winners down your street."

It is a question asked time and time again: what would you do if you won the lottery? Would you give up work, buy a mansion, go on a round the world trip?

Most people spend the money making their dreams a reality. They buy a bigger house, go on holiday and buy a new car - usually an Audi or Range Rover. 

But as well as the big splashes, some winners choose to treat or even share their new found fortune with their families. 

Mr Horne said: "All type of people play and everyone has as much chance of winning as everyone else.

"Every winner almost always says if I can win, anyone can."

If you do happen to win, the National Lottery will support you, offering legal and financial advice with different organisations if you wish. 

You can also decide whether or not to go public with your winnings, only about 10 to 15 per cent of winners do actually publicise their happy news.

Recent winners who did go public include Ivan Brown, of Carlisle, who splashed out on a five-bedroom luxury house and packed in his job as a fork lift driver for Pirelli tyres soon after he won £1m on the EuroMillions in April last year. 

Robert Bruce, from Penrith scooped £727,308 on Lotto last March and Stephen and Tracey Birbeck, also of Penrith, won £370,000 in August 2013. 

Mr Horne said for those going after the mega bucks, EuroMillions was the one to play - this Friday's jackpot is £36m. The Lotto draw is usually somewhere between £3m and £6m, though there have been winners this year who have bagged up to £30m.

Scratch cards are hugely popular as they give people the instant satisfaction of knowing whether they have won. Prizes range from about £5,000 to £4m. 

And it's not just people who benefit. Since 1994, more than £52m of National Lottery funding has been spent in Cumbria in councils, charities, schools and village halls. 

Buying a ticket has changed lives

Cumbria has had its fair share of winners during the last two decades, though there have been mixed fortunes for our instant millionaires.

The first person in the region to strike lucky in the National Lottery was Joe Tomlinson, a former iron-ore miner from Egremont, when he won more than £1m in 1998.

Despite his win, he continued to lead a quiet lifestyle and was content in his home at Castle Croft in Egremont. He used his wealth to buy his friend a 25in television as well as taking his family on a Mediterranean cruise. He died aged 74 in 2004.

The following year, Andrew Oliver, a former assistant manager at Deep Pan Pizza in Carlisle, won £3.5m, while Penrith gran Lillian Jones and her husband Alan, a Co-op butcher, won £3.3m.

Electrician David Little, from Etterby Park in Carlisle, won just under £3.5 million in May 2002.

He became the city’s most eligible bachelor, splashing out on a Mercedes car, quitting his job as a sheet metal worker and moving into a luxury home.

At the young age of 16, Callie Rogers scooped almost £1.9m in 2003 and was thrust into the media spotlight.

At the time she was living with foster parents and earning £3.60 an hour as a Co-op checkout girl in Cockermouth.

On the back of her win she became the county’s most high-profile winner and has told of how she splurged her cash on parties, drugs, holidays and cosmetic surgery.

But not every Cumbrian winner turned into a big spender.

Down-to-earth Maryport couple Elizabeth and George Thompson chose not to splash out on a lavish lifestyle after they won £2.8m in 2001 – opting to buy a modest caravan as a family holiday home in Silloth instead.

But Elizabeth did give up her job as a care assistant while George quit his £150-a-week job at a seafood factory.

In 2008, Carlisle builder Tony Nutbrown won £3m. He said after his win that he planned to keep his company, Tony Nutbrown Building Services, in business, but would cut back on work.

His partner, assistant nurse Patricia Alderson, said she would give up work on the trauma ward of Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary but would visit as a volunteer. They planned to move out of their modest, semi-detached home in Belle Vue to a new home elsewhere in the city.

Whatever happens after they win the lottery, Ivan and Debbie Brown, of Carlisle, who won £1m in the EuroMillions in April last year, said winning was the best feeling ever.

"You know when you’re a kid and you’re waiting for Christmas, or that feeling when you’re going to buy your first car or you’re going to go on holiday – if you put all that into one and times it by 10, that’s what it feels like," said Mr Brown.