One ticket was all it took for a publican to scoop £10,000 with his first Lake District Giveaways entry.

 

David Rodgie, of Winton, had put £10 credit on to his account and hadn’t worked out how to use it, but after seeing a post on our Facebook of a competition finishing that day, he decided to give it another try.

 

He bought the ticket and didn’t think any more about it, going about his day as normal, working at The Bay Horse Inn in the village. That evening, we gave him a call to tell him he was the lucky winner, but he thought it was just a scam.

 

 “When they said, ‘you’ve just won £10,000, how does it feel,’ I didn’t believe it. I must have been the worst live caller ever,” said the 60 year old, who said it was only when customers told him it was genuine that the excitement started to kick in.

 

“What the guys at Lake District Giveaways are doing is fantastic,” he said. “The advantage is that people you know are winning – that’s the biggest selling point they have. It’s all people you know and when you look at the instant wins, it’s people who you recognise. The money has gone back to the area.”

 

David, who has run the pub for nine years, said the hospitality industry had been struggling since Covid, and the £10,000 win has been a real cash injection for his business, helping him continue with refurbishments which would have been hard to fund otherwise.

 

“It was unbelievable. I’ve put it all into refurbishments on the dining room and got some other bits done which are essential for the business,” said David. “By entering a Lake District Giveaways competition, you may not win £110 million, but you will win enough to change your life.”

 

See yourself as our next big winner? Have a look at what competitions we have running now!