TWO National Lottery winners from Wirral were among those from across the North West celebrating being part of a group that is worth a combined £53 million.

Tony Dodd, from Wallasey, who won £2.4m on Lotto in 2007 and Ben Woods, from Raby, who won £2.4m on Lotto in 2004, joined fellow winners from across the Northwest for a champagne picnic at Inglewood Manor.

According to the National Lottery Records show 4,000 winners, worth more than £11.5 billion, have joined the lucky lottery millionaires club since 1994 – with an average of six new millionaires created every week. The National Lottery has helped to create 461 millionaires in the North West.

Wirral Globe:

The group of Lottery winners celebrate at Inglewood Manor. Picture: Paul Heaps

After his lottery win in 2004 railway guard Ben immediately handed in his notice at Port Sunlight station.

He said: "It's changed my life immensely. I gave up work and have since got married, bought a house and grown up.

"I loved every minute of job on the railway, but winning the lottery just gave me so many choices and to be able to give up work and spend more time with my family was just a fantastic position to be in"

And Tony, 77, who lost wife Greta last year, said: "Winning the lottery has totally changed my life and I still do it occasionally, just in case.

“It was complete and utter shock when we Greta and I realised we had won.

"I just sat down to check the numbers on the television – which I never normally did – and noticed we had the first three, then the first four, then it sunk in that we had all six.

“The first thing we did with the money was book in for private knee replacement surgery for both of us."

Among the winners celebrating at Inglewood Manor were Brian Caswell, from Bolton, who won £24,951,269 on EuroMillions in 2009; Sharon Mather, from Hale, who won £12.4m on EuroMillions in 2010; Denise Scarr, from Morecambe, who won £6.3m on Lotto in April this year; Sean Lloyd, from Tameside, who won £1.8m on Lotto in January this year; Kelly Massey, who won £1m on EuroMillions in 2013 and Ruth Breen, from Wigan, who won £1m on EuroMillions in July last year.