Catching Up with Our Winner...

 

So, Mrs Love, where were you when you found out you'd won?

I was actually cleaning my cupboard. I’d had the day off work and I got a phone call at quarter past nine, or twenty past nine, and I was upstairs cleaning the bedroom. I thought it was fake! "I don’t remember entering the competition," I thought. I thought someone is having a joke. Fortunately, you reassured me.

 

What difference will winning make to your Christmas Day?

Oh, it’s going to make a really big difference - especially in the current climate. Yeah, a real, real big difference. We’d put a limited spend on Christmas this year on gifts for family and friends and Christmas itself. This is going to be something special this year. To share it with the children and grandchildren. And I think we’ll give a few of the other items to family members…it’s a bit too much for just us!

 

And what does a real Christmas mean for your family?

So Christmas for us is about family. Christmas starts on Christmas Eve with snowballs and watching Elf, the movie. And then normally a takeaway on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day starts with Champagne, bacon sandwiches, and the opening of our stockings! Dinner is always late - it’s never on time. It’s normally about three or half three before we even think about sitting down.

 

What does your family think of you winning?

They’re very excited, very excited. And the few people we have told can’t believe it either. And they’ve all said that it’s really nice to have a real prize, that goes to a real person and makes a real difference. They’re all very excited to share the spoils of it with us.

 

Happy Christmas! Is there anything else you'd like to say?

I would just like to say thank you to Fortnum & Mason, thank you to Angela and her team who’ve been here today helping me open everything, and to your red coats for doing the tree! As a family, we have decided that we will donate some of the money we save on Christmas because of this gift this year to charity.