A gran who scooped £35,000 on the Postcode Lottery plans to use her prize money to buy her bird-loving husband a new pigeon coop. Jan Frost, 75, scooped the five-figure sum last Monday (February 13) - two years after she started taking part in the weekly draw without telling hubby Mick, 79.
And the former factory worker says she's going to feed Mick's passion for poultry with her winnings. She said Mick, who looked after racing pigeons for 70 years, gave up his medal-winning flock three years ago because of his aching bones.
But he's been left longingly “looking out the window” at birds landing by their home in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, ever since. Now she's more than ready to shell out her money to make her husband happy - even though state-of-the-art pigeon huts cost up to £3,000.
Jan said: “As long as he’s happy, I’m happy. I do know he kept looking out the window. He doesn’t know what to do with his time now. He’s missed them so much, he wants them back, and he wants to start up again. So he was looking at huts straight away.”
Jan, a mother-of four and grandmother-of-ten, said she had no idea the size of her winnings until Monday and was overwhelmed when she got her cheques. She said: “I’m just a working-class woman. It means a lot. I can’t explain. It doesn’t feel real. It just feels like a number.
“I thought it would be about £1,000 or £2,000. When I did see it, I nearly swore. I said, ‘flippin’ eck!’ You don’t expect anyone to win it on an estate.
“On television, it was in cul-de-sacs and nice new houses. This is a council house. It’s not bought yet, we’re still mortgaging it at our age.”
Participants in The People's Post Code Lottery pay £10 a month to enter a weekly draw, where they can win cash prizes. Ex-council worker Mick said he was over the moon that Jan was willing to help him get back into his lifelong hobby.
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He said: “It’s her winnings, and I didn’t know she was into it. When they phoned up, I said, ‘It’s The Postcode Lottery for you. What do they want?'
“And that's when she said, 'I’ve been in it for two years now.' But I never knew. I was 14 when I first started racing, but I kept them from when I was ten years old.
“The furthest the pigeons have gone is 200 miles. I sent them as young babies, and they went to France. I raced them in Barnsley Fair, and I was first and second in the club. And I was seventh and eighth out of the 700 pigeons that went in 2019.
“But I got really fed up with them, because bending down to clean them out, my knees were hurting. You’ve got to clean them out every day, you can’t leave them.
“So I felt I’d had enough. But as time’s gone on, I’ve just been sat in the house and doing nothing. So I thought I’d get back into them again."
He added: "It’s not a cheap game. I’ve got a brochure for them, and they’re £2,000, £3,000 for a hut.
"That’s not for the perches to sit on and nest boxes for them to go in and lay their eggs. So roughly, before I start up again, it will cost £2,500.”
Jan, who was one of 12 neighbours on Knutton Crescent to win prizes ranging from £5,000 to £35,000, said they also planned to take a trip to Cyrpus with the money. She added: “I can’t wait! I like Cyprus – I was there years and years ago, and I had a champagne breakfast, and it was absolutely beautiful.”
