The lottery win that was almost lost
Melanie May | 16 September 2016 | News
A charity lottery winner almost missed out on his prize after forgetting to tell the charity that he had moved.
Retired postman David Stuart won £25,000 on a monthly Lotto and Superdraw run by Demelza Hospice Care for Children.
Paul Booth, Demelza’s head of lottery and gaming, had hoped to present the £25,000 cheque personally to Mr Stuart, but when he arrived on the doorstep of Mr Stuart’s old house in Maidstone, Kent he discovered that Stuart had moved away six months previously without updating his details with the charity. It took a six-week search before Demelza managed to track Stuart down to his new home, 40 miles away at Littlestone-on-Sea.
Booth said:
“A neighbour told me that Mr Stuart had moved – possibly to east Kent, but they didn’t have a forwarding address. I discovered he had worked for the Post Office, so we tried contacting them, but to no avail. We also tried 192, Facebook and BT directory enquiries, but drew a blank.”
Stuart paid his lottery membership by direct debit but the sort code was for an old Post Office Giro bank account, which had been taken over by Alliance & Leicester, and then Santander. The charity sent numerous letters and emails to Santander and were on the point of giving up when Mr Stuart finally got in touch, having received one of the letters.
Happily, Stuart has now received his winnings, and has spent them on a new four-berth camper van so he and his partner can tour around Britain and Europe (pictured).
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.