Margaret Kelley, a 59-year-old cleaner from Amble, is to donate £2,000 from her £300,000 Bejeweled Scratchcard win to help the Amble RNLI volunteers replace their ageing lifeboat with a new Shannon class boat. 

Margaret, who works at the Amble Marina is also looking to pay off her mortgage and has bought a new car following her “life changing” Scratchcard win. 

Amble’s current all-weather Mersey class lifeboat, The Four Boys, is due to be replaced in 2017 and campaigners are working hard to help raise the £300,000 needed for a replacement. 

“People in the area are working really hard to raise the money needed to get the new Shannon class lifeboat which will be 50% faster than the existing vessel and will really make a difference in terms of helping anybody who might get into difficulty around the Northumberland coast,” said Margaret. 

“My son, Richard (28), is a member of the crew at the Amble base, so it is fantastic that I will be in a position to make a difference to the fund from my winnings at a level that I just would not have been able to do previously. 

“Money has been tight over the years, but I have just bought myself a new Ford Fiesta and the win will also mean I can pay off my mortgage which is a huge thing for someone at my age.” 

Margaret, who is also a member of a National Lottery syndicate at Amble Marina, bought her winning Scratchcard at her local Co-Op in Amble on January 5th and has been on a winning streak with The National Lottery in the early part of 2016. 

“I bought two Scratchcards that day and one gave me £3.00 winnings with the other £300,000! I also had a £100 win on a Scratchcard the week before, so maybe that luck will rub off on the syndicate at the marina. 

“The winnings will make an awful lot of difference to my life and hopefully also really help the lifeboat appeal.   If this donation helps bring forward the date on which we can get a new boat then we will really all be winners.” 

The National Lottery changes the lives of winners like Margaret as well as communities across the UK – players raise, on average, over £33m for National Lottery-funded projects every week. In the Northumberland postcode area alone there have been 3,316 individual National Lottery grants made to date, funding projects across the arts, sports, heritage, health, education, environment, charity and voluntary sectors. 

In Margaret’s own back yard in Amble, National Lottery funding has helped: 

For more information on National Lottery funding please visit www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk.