A Birmingham Lottery winner who scooped £1m revealed the surprising item she bought first. Jodie Langston, from Northfield, has spoken about how her life has changed and what Christmas means to her since her massive win in 2019.
Jodie was only 22 when she played the Run For Your Money Instant Win Game on her phone while bored in a caravan because the great British weather had brought incessant rain during a family holiday. But the storm clouds certainly lifted after Jodie realised she had won big and she treated friends and family at that first Christmas after her win.
It was also the first ever time she had played the game, which later funded the “wedding of my dreams.” Jodie, a Birmingham mortgage underwriter, told BirminhgamLive: “I had just recently bought a caravan at Brean Sands in Somerset. The rest of my family had caravans at the same site and we were down there for the last break of the year before the site closed for the winter.
READ MORE: Where’s the beef? Birmingham school bans meat from its menu
“It wasn’t great weather and I was a bit bored, sitting alone in my caravan so decided to put £10 on to my National Lottery account to play one of the games. I just scrolled through all the different games and saw the £1m Run For Your Money prize and thought I’d have a go.
21-year-old Northfield resident Jodie Scullion wins £1,000,000 on a National Lottery / Lotto game. Pictured in Birmingham Botanical Gardens. 07/11/19
(Image: BirminghamLive)
After playing and thinking she had won, Jodie rushed over to her parent’s caravan next door to make sure. “I looked at my phone, then looked again and thought this can’t be right so I went next door to Mum and Dad to ask their advice.
“Dad checked it, checked it again and after the third check told me to stay calm. I then phoned The National Lottery to check if I had won. By this time two of my sisters had appeared to see what was going on.
“Dad told everyone to keep calm as I was on the phone because he knew that the whole family would start screaming and crying all at the same time if I actually had won £1M – and we did!” We then just all sat there crying then laughing, then crying again and just talked for hours about what I could do with the money.”
Surprisingly, first thing Jodie bought after the win was a pair of UGG boots! She said: “I still have the boots in my wardrobe, and they’re a constant reminder of winning on The National Lottery.
“I’d been saving for the boots, and when I won, I couldn’t decide which colour to buy a pair in. I said to my sister: ‘There’s three different colours – which one should I choose?’ and she replied: ‘You’ve won the lottery – you can afford all three’!”
Other early purchases included a house, a new car came later. She said: “The win was three weeks before my 23rd birthday. I bought a house three doors away from my parents, and I didn’t change car until 2021 when I chose a BMW X4 and treated myself to personal number plates.” The win also afforded Jodie the opportunity to reduce her hours as a mortgage underwriter.
Jodie said the win allowed her to have the ‘wedding of my dreams’
Another life changing moment in Jodie’s life happened this summer. Jodie, now 28, married husband Alex, a painter and decorator, in July this year. She said: “I had the wedding of my dreams – a huge country house, nine groomsmen and nine bridesmaids with a honeymoon in Greece. There’s no way I could have afforded such a special wedding without my National Lottery win.”
Jodie said: “I can’t believe I won the first time I played the game. It’s unbelievable and life-changing and every Christmas since then has been extra special. I have always loved Christmas, it’s a special time of year for families and friendship. The first Christmas after the win was extra special because we did treat everyone.
“Everyone has always gone around to my parents, it’s a real houseful. When Alex and I bought a house, we were able to then have everyone around to our house at Christmas, and affording a new house was only possible due to the win.
“Alex always dresses up as Father Christmas and gives out the presents to our nieces and nephews on Christmas Day. I just love the fact that we can treat them and have all these little family traditions. And this year it will be extra special because it will be my first married to Alex.”
Jodie won just before the 25th anniversary of the first National Lottery draw. This November saw the 30th anniversary. Since it launched, over 7,400 millionaires have been made and more than £50 billion has been raised for Good Causes with more than 700,000 individual grants awarded. This money supports our nation’s heritage, the arts and sport, as well as helping grassroots projects in every local community.