£1M winners leaves mystery gifts at food banks…

Grant and Taryn Hawkes lives have changed after scooping the Lotto Millionaire Raffle jackpot, revealing they left mystery gifts at food banks during lockdown – and they have never forgotten the help they received and have been giving back to their community.

A kind-hearted couple who were once so poor their friends bought their children shoes have revealed how they have left mystery gifts at food banks during lockdown to show their gratitude. The Hawkes couple, from Newquay, Cornwall, scooped £1m on the Lotto Millionaire Raffle win two years ago. It could not have come at a better time for the struggling couple and their children Holly, 14 and Ethan, 11. Husband Grant, 43, had been diagnosed with a muscle disease and had to give up work as an electrician meaning the family had to get by on 42-year-old Taryn’s meagre wage as a teaching assistant.

She said: “Colleagues were offering us shoes for the children, food parcels and the odd fiver to help us pay bills. It was such a tough time – I remember walking into the supermarket with £5 for the week, wondering how I could buy enough food for the children.” We were even able to treat our son to an Xbox after our win and he couldn’t believe he could keep it and that it was his.

However the couple have never forgotten the help they received and – particularly over the pandemic lockdown – they’ve been giving back to their community. Taryn revealed: “We leave gift cards behind shop counters for other people who are struggling, we’ve given money to food banks, bought a high chair for a local domestic violence charity and we’ve helped friends who have lost their jobs during the pandemic. “We’ve also helped the causes which once supported us in our time of need.”

Following the win, thoughts quickly turned to Grant’s health – and the win enabled him to have private Yoga classes and hydrotherapy, both of which have helped enormously. A change in diet to healthy, home cooked food was also a factor that allowed him to take his first painful steps without crutches three months after the win.

Grant said: “Just not having to worry about money made such a huge difference. “We bought a new car, a VW camper van with plenty of room for surf boards and last October, we went on our first ever foreign holiday – an all-inclusive trip to Majorca which was Taryn and the children’s first time on a plane.”

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