Brit lottery winners joining ultra-exclusive club after scooping millions

It is the most exclusive 'club' in the land.....and everyone wants to be a member.

National Lottery winners are now in a network where they message each other with help and advice. Past winners guide the new lotto millionaires after their lives have been transformed forever. The lottery 'winners club' is a hit with new members, some worth more than £100m, as they come to terms with their sudden good fortune.

They get together at charity events, voluntary projects and concerts. They share experiences in those early days after hitting the jackpot and beyond.....because only winners know how it feels.

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And it means they are ready for the 'pitfalls' encountered after a win. The advice covers everything from how to tell family and friends to what to do with your life once you no longer need to work.

"No one else truly knows how that feels apart from the winners," one source close to the project said. "After the new house, car, holidays, you need help and advice. Many winners start their own businesses.You would be surprised, many find jobs.

"They believe in the work ethic. That remains important, no matter how much money you win." Elaine Thompson, 69, from Newcastle, is among the lottery millionaires happy to help new winners.

She won £2.7m in 1995 with husband Derek, 67. He worked as an accountant, she worked part-time in an administrative role at a hospital in Basingstoke, Hants, where they had been living at the time.

They gave up their jobs, but then made several investments which ensured they kept on working, including the purchase of a restaurant.

She admitted her new found riches took weeks to sink in. Elaine, a mum-of-two and now a grandmother-of-three, has met 'thousands' of jackpot winnerssince the lottery's launch in November, 1994.

There are now 7,400 lottery millionaires in the UK; the vast majority did not opt for publicity and live among us anonymously. "It was manic when we won," Elaine told the Mirror.

"We had hundreds of messages and texts. You are like a deer in the headlights. It may be £2.7m or £120m; you cannot know what it is like unless you have been in that situation. It takes weeks, sometimes months, to sink it."

With a laugh, she recalled: "It took us three years to pay the mortgage off. We just forgot. When we finally got around to it, the bank manager said 'it is about time'. We were in total shock; I gave £1m to my brother because he brought me up.

"Then I thought 'what do we do now?' Luckily, I married an accountant and we had a wonderful financial adviser with us for 29 years. It is amazing what you find out when you win money."

The 'lottery winners' club gets together to work on charity projects, revamping childrens' homes, Lidos, and volunteering for environmental causes.

Next time you see a group of litter pickers on a UK beach, be nice to them; they may have £100m between them. Elaine reckons about '99 percent of winners' do charity work.

"We just had a litter pick in Bamburgh, Northumberland; we talked about our experiences," she said. Most people buy houses, go on holidays, we bought racehorses. Cheltenham was our favourite, then it became very expensive.

"Even after you win, you keep your values; when I came to Newcastle, I was so bored that I was cleaning the skirting board with a toothbrush.

"I went to work at M&S through the night for 10 years; I loved it, I have just retired, and I really miss it. I went back to work to show my children that you have to work for everything in life, to give them an example of what they should be doing.

"We always tell winners: 'you will make decisions on the day of the win, but they will change'. I gave my brother £1m because he brought me up. But it is scary, it is a whirlwind.

"It was probably six weeks before we could truly recognise that we had all that money in the bank. For £100m winners, the riches are 'beyond your wildest dreams.' "They all get their own financial advice, and have their own ideas about what to do with it."

Elaine has been to No 10 thanks to her charity work, and enjoyed 'amazing' holidays. But helping her children Karen, 40, and Gary, 35, meant the most to her: "That £1 ticket transformed their lives.

"When we were first married, they would not have gone to university. But it gave them an education, a house, a career, a future."