Beccles celebrates £3.2m People's Postcode Lottery win as 655 people share prize

A Suffolk town is celebrating after finding out that their postcode sector of NR34 9 was the winner of the latest People's Postcode Lottery.

A total of 655 people in Beccles scooped a share of a £3.2 million prize.

The largest portion of the money was won by ten people playing with the full winning postcode of NR34 9RS, as eight of the winners each received a cheque for £133,333.

The remaining two winners doubled their prizes to £266,666 thanks to playing with two tickets.

Mum-of-four Zoe Mowday, 35, was with her husband Dan when she found out she'd won £133,333 and the couple are now planning their dream honeymoon and a jolly Christmas.

Ms Mowday said: "I feel like I'm going to wake up tomorrow and think, 'Did I dream that? That was a dream'. This amount means so much to our family."

After getting married in June, the couple didn't have a honeymoon following a budget wedding in a local pub.

Ms Mowday said: "I've always wanted to go to Italy, but we knew we'd never be able to afford to go anywhere other than twenty minutes down the road. Italy was always just a dream."

The couple can now also look forward to an easier Christmas, "This money will make life so much easier," Ms Mowday said.

"Recently it's been a struggle, as I'm not working at the moment, because I'm looking after the babies, and we've only got one wage coming in.

"That's what has been really sad because the kids had done their list for Santa and our teenager wanted a new phone and our son wanted a Fitbit, and we were trying to look for second-hand and didn't think we'd be able to do it.

"Now we can treat them to what they want."

Glyn and Linda Savage, a retired married couple, thought Christmas had come early as Ms Savage said: "It's maybe not going to change our lives because we are retired, but it certainly is going to change our children's lives."

Other winners included Alice Stanley, a retired secretary and grandmother, Cheryl Lewis, a dinner lady and mum-of-three, and 63-year-old Mandy Stanley, a children's book author and illustrator.

Ms Stanley said: "We've had a rough year, but things have definitely just got better.

"My mother-in-law was kind enough to let us stay with her during a house move, hence why I started playing with her postcode.

"It's fate, you never know what lies around the corner."