Cornwall lottery winner celebrated with trip to Butlins afer scooping £13m

Cornwall's most famous Lottery winner celebrated his life-changing good fortune with a family holiday trip to Butlins. Well-known ‘no charge’ wedding chauffeur and great grandad to 10, Peter Congden, scooped a £13.5m jackpot in May 2015.

Over the years he has been using his wealth to help "deserving local young people" get on the property ladder and also found his calling as a wedding chauffeur after coming to the rescue of a stranded bride during the Covid pandemic.

The 76-year-old stepped in to help the damsel in distress when her nuptials were cancelled four times and she couldn't get a wedding car in time. Now the big-hearted grandad-of-ten, from Truro in Cornwall, has his own fleet of cars for the needy, including anyone from teens going to prom or people facing the end of their lives in a hospice.

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He's also helping with the housing crisis, as he's used a portion of his fortune to buy a clutch of homes that he rents out at low prices to young people to help them get onto the property ladder.

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Peter, who has spoken of the pros and cons of winning the lottery, recently took part in a glamourous photoshoot by renown celebrity photographer Rankin to celebrate the National Lottery's 30th birthday along with fellow Cornwall winner Viv Moss who won £6m in 1998 on the National Lottery.

It's exactly 30 years since National Lottery tickets first went on sale in the UK, on November 14, 1994. Rankin, who has photographed a host of iconic figures including the late Queen Elizabeth II and The Rolling Stones, gathered 30 Lottery winners, worth more than £190m, at his London studio.

The results are intimate individual portraits of the winners, smaller group shots and a historic shot of all 30 National Lottery winners together – representing just a fraction of the 7,400 millionaires created since the first draw.

It was while talking about the glam photoshoot that Peter revealed what his first expenditure was after his win almost 10 years ago. He said: "I can remember my very first purchase after discovering the win was a family holiday to Butlins, Minehead. We’d been going for 40 years and it felt like the right place to go and celebrate."

He added: "Winning on The National Lottery has totally changed my life – and the lives of those around me too. I’ve been able to help family and friends in a way I could previously only have dreamt of, but just as importantly, I’ve also been able to help my community.

“It’s hard to believe it is 30 years since the first National Lottery ticket was sold, and I’m proud to say I was there for the first draw and happy to be still playing now. Never did I think I would be one of the lucky people celebrating a win, or one of the lucky few to be photographed by Rankin. At 76 you don’t expect to be a supermodel, just shows that anything is possible."

“I’m still buying tickets because I now know that Cornish families, just like mine, can win, plus I’m also more aware than ever that playing generates funding for incredible projects right across Cornwall."

Since the first draw on November 19, 1994, 572 people in the South West and 7,400 nationally have become millionaires. About the photophoot, Rankin, said: “I am extremely lucky that I get to meet and work with extraordinary people, from famous actors and models through to NHS nurses.

"I remember when the National Lottery first started and it was intriguing to meet the real winners and hear their stories and experiences. They are normal people who have had an extraordinary thing happen to them, transforming their lives. That is what we set out to capture."

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