£1MMillion winners find recipe for happiness on tropical island

The chefs from Coventry now spend their days living and working on the Caribbean island of St Lucia. As well as opening a restaurant, they’ve designed and built a three-storey home and holiday apartments.

Cath said, “Winning has changed our lives and even after seven years we still have to pinch ourselves. It’s a long way from Coventry!”

Bill, who is from Coventry, met Cath in 1992 while working at a luxury hotel in her native St Lucia. After deciding to make the tropical island their home they bought a plot of land a few minutes from the beach in the hope they would one day be able to build their dream home and restaurant.

The couple returned to Coventry and worked in corporate catering, visiting St Lucia whenever they could. Bill admits there were times when it seemed they would never be able to live out their dreams in the sun.

Everything changed one day in 2017 when Bill checked his National Lottery account. He said, “We couldn’t believe it when we saw a message saying, ‘Congratulations, you’re a winner!’ We weren’t sure if it was £10,000 or £100,000 at first. When I called the National Lottery hotline to confirm the win there was a long silence and finally I was told I had won a million pounds.

“At that moment there was such excitement in the house and lots of screaming. We celebrated with a nice cup of tea and I didn’t sleep all night, it just wouldn’t sink in.”

Returning to St Lucia, Bill and Cath set to work building a home and creating a restaurant where they could cook and serve delicious Caribbean cuisine using the island’s produce.

Cath said, “We immediately realised that our life in St Lucia was going to finally become a reality. We have worked hard since the win to make our dream come true. We designed and built our own three-storey home, complete with holiday apartments on the ground floor, and a large party deck with a bar and restaurant called Brigands Hideaway.

“We love to cook and have the most amazing ingredients and produce literally on our doorstep. We buy fresh fish direct from the boats at the harbour, we buy lots from the local markets and we can even pick fruit from our garden. Using all local, in-season ingredients has really gone down well with both locals and tourists and we are very proud of our five-star reviews.”

The couple, who live just a few moments from the island’s famous Piton mountains, work hard but enjoy every moment of their new lives. Cath said, “We can be on the beach within a couple of minutes. I am very proud to serve traditional St Lucian cuisine and delighted with our great reviews. This place means so much to both of us after the journey we have both been on to get here.

“We now have a restaurant, holiday apartments, a swimming pool and enjoy tropical weather all year round.”

This November marks The National Lottery’s 30th anniversary. Since its launch in 1994, it has made more than 7,200 millionaires or multi-millionaires. On average, seven millionaires are made every week.

By playing The National Lottery you help generate £30MMillion each week for National Lottery-funded projects. Since 1994, more than 690,000 grants have been made to projects across the UK with recipients ranging from local projects like Lucky Ewe to Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

24th October 2024