Sussex lottery winners are keeping it real

When you've got a million in the bank and the world at your feet, the opportunities for shopping are limitless.

While you might imagine yourself dripping in diamonds, swanning around in huge shades and a Dior suit, for some lottery winners it couldn't be further from the truth.

Indeed, there are three millionaires in Sussex who are more likely to be rummaging through the bargains in Primark than Prada.

They might have won nearly £6 million between them but Diane Robson, Samantha Lange and Gaynor Funnell are intent on keeping it real, choosing the High Street over high-end couture.

All three have given up on posh shops, proving you can't beat a bargain - even when money is no object.

It's a far cry from infamous pools winner Viv Nicholson, who blew her fortune on a shocking pink Cadillac (and the rest) and is now reduced to living off a state pension.

Samantha, from Seaford, scooped nearly 1.6m in 1999. While she has splashed out on luxury holidays and revamped her home, she still shops in Primark, George at Asda and Next.

"I can't wear a Chanel dress when I'm at home washing the floor," she reasons. "That's the reality of everyday life. Plus, I didn't have one before so why would I buy one now?"

Diane, 54, from Eastbourne, who won £2.4 in the Lotto Jackpot last July, has also become disillusioned with top-end prices.

"I still look for a bargain, I can't help it," she says. "I went to London on a shopping trip the other week with my sister. We went to Bond Street, John Lewis and Selfridges and I couldn't find a thing. I came back to Eastbourne and ended up spending loads in M&S and Debenhams. I suppose you get used to the same style."

While she was tempted by a £1,000 Gucci handbag, the straps "didn't sit quite right", and she ended up putting it back. She is not alone.

Gaynor Funnell, 46, from Hailsham, had visions of luxury when her husband Dave scooped £3.6m with his brother in 2002, Not once did she imagine herself knee deep in mud and sheep droppings, wearing a pair of wellies.

A former brickie, Dave spotted his chance to quit his job and pursue his ambition of a lifetime to become a farmer. They swapped their three-bed semi for a five-bed converted barn and four acres of land.

Instead of poncing around in a pair of Jimmy Choos, Gaynor has acquired 25 chickens, two horses, two rabbits, four dogs, two puppies and 250 sheep (all giving birth as we speak).

With Dave now in the process of buying a couple of pigs, there is little time or space for irrelevant luxuries.

And, as far as Gaynor is concerned, life couldn't be better.

They've taken luxury holidays to the Maldives, Mauritius, Mexico, South Africa and New York. They also bought a Mercedes each, until Dave decided it was "too posh" for lugging bags of cement and swapped it for a Ford Ranger truck.

"Now we've got the animals, Dave's happy and we don't feel as if we need to go on holiday," says Gaynor.

"He's got a brand new tractor, which cost £25,000, and he's like a boy with a new toy."

Apart from a couple of evening dresses (covered in crystals), Gaynor is also "keeping it real" - shopping in Monsoon, Principles, Next and Primark. The most she's spent on a dress was £300 "...and to me, that was a fortune," she says.

"When you come from not having a lot of money in the first place, you don't feel you can spend it. It's different for footballers' wives because it keeps coming in. When you win the lottery, you've got to make it last."

She adds: "I've got a beautiful house, a lovely garden and my kids are happy.

That's more than enough."

The snobbish attitude of sales assistants has also put Gaynor off splashing out in the past.

One episode that springs to mind was the time they popped into Tiffanys in New York. "We were really scruffy,"

she recalls. "We'd been traipsing around with the kids eating pizza all day and we only went in because we were passing. The staff were so snotty, I wouldn't have bought anything even if I'd wanted to."

As far as their relationships with friends and family go, nothing has changed. "People just take you for what you are," she says.

"We had a mortgage, kids and the normal debts like anyone else - so winning a lot of money was great. It's six years now since we won. I still have to pinch myself sometimes when I wake up in the mornings."

As it happens, the Funnell's 250 sheep aren't the only animals in Sussex living in the lap of luxury.

Having no children, Diane shares her £2.4 million with her cat Saffy and Jack Russell, Sandy. The dog has turned many a furry head padding past in his diamante collar and lead.

Her beloved Jack Russell was even with her the moment she won.

"I was getting ready for work on the Sunday morning and I said to the dog, I'd better check the lottery ticket'," she recalls. "When the numbers came up, I couldn't believe it. I got flustered and thought I must have got the wrong week. My head felt as if it was going to explode and my blood pressure went through the roof. I phoned my sister and said, You've got to come around, now! And bring some Champagne!'"

Diane still buys her ticket from the same shop every week. She used to do the lottery with her late husband Dave.

It wasn't until after he died, however, that she scooped the jackpot.

"Friends have said he reeled it in,"

she says. "And, as my mum died a year before, I reckon they worked their magic together."

Asked if she'd swap her millions to have him back, there is no question.

He was the love of her life. "I'd rather have him any day," she says. "He was such a lovely man.

In spite of the tragic twist of fate, Diane has had eight months of "really good fun".

She gave up her job earning £120 a week at a local wedding shop and moved out of her two-bed, end-ofterrace house in Eastbourne. She now lives in a three-bed detached house with a 130ft garden, complete with summer house, hot tub and two big patios.

"It's a real home - not a huge one,"

she says. "I didn't want a house I was going to rattle around in. All I wanted was a big garden."

Her best friend of 30 years now lives in her old house and drives her old car, while Diane zips around town in a new Peugeot 207 Cabriolet.

Her only other luxury was to treat herself to a lovely diamond ring.

"It's just nice to be able to say Yes, I can have that'," she says. "I've always wanted a diamond ring."

Diane claims she has her feet firmly on the ground and still goes to exactly the same haunts - the Working Men's Club in Eastbourne (where she's been going for 11 years), being one of them.

"Most people say I haven't changed,"

she says. "I still go drinking in the club and I still stand at the bar with some of the men. The only difference is, whereas they'd never let me buy a drink before, they'll let me buy one now."

She has also been known to give the occasional tip, like the time she went to a Christmas party held by one of the prestigious banks in London.

"When we came out it was pouring with rain," she recalls. "There were no taxis anywhere and then one of those rickshaws came along. The bloke offered to take us and he ended up pedalling halfway around London. The poor man was absolutely drenched to the skin by the time we arrived.

"I said, How much?' He said, A fiver, unless you want to give me something for Christmas.' So I gave him a tenner."

Diane's family all get a little bit extra for birthdays and Christmas now.

The only drawback, she says, is when family members have money problems of their own.

"You want to help but where do you stop? You can't do it for one and not the other. If I gave everybody a fair whack I wouldn't have anything at all," she points out. "I've made my will, they'll get it when I've gone."

While friends and family treat her exactly the same, Diane has noticed a slightly warmer welcome when she goes to some restaurants.

Whereas before she'd have to book a week in advance, these days the manager will come over and shake her hand and she always gets a table, even when she turns up "on the off-chance"

with eight friends.

The only frosty reception she has had was in a ladies boutique in Tunbridge Wells. "The shop assistants were looking down their noses," she recalls. "So I thought, I'll show them.

I bought a bra for £90 and got my Coutts card out. That shut them up.

They were all peering over the girl's shoulder to get a look."

So has the money changed her?

Diane pauses: "The only thing I tend to do now which I didn't do before is put make-up on before I leave the house," she says. "You can't go out looking scruffy."

While she could easily afford to travel the world and have the holiday of a lifetime, Diane refuses to go too far.

The only place she really wants to go is Sri Lanka to watch England play cricket.

"But I can't do that," she points out. "I could never leave the dog."

Unlike Diane, holidays took top priority for Samantha, a former petrol station assistant, when she won £1.6m.

She lives in Seaford with her partner Malcolm, son Dale and daughters Shuria and Kalisha.

One of the first things she did was buy a first-class ticket to New Zealand to visit her dad, whom she hadn't seen for four years. "I had been putting away £50 a month and had no idea when we'd be able to go," she says.

The prize money was even more ironic in that it came just after they'd returned from a £9.50 holiday through The Sun.

"I was due to do a shift at the petrol station and nearly didn't put the ticket on," she says. "I got a call from Malcolm saying our numbers had come up but the shop was full of customers so I put it to the back of my mind.

"It wasn't until I got home after midnight and saw the numbers on the screen, it really hit me. I don't think we slept at all that night."

Although they haven't moved, they've extended the house, adding two extra bedrooms, a new kitchen, a new bathroom, a Jacuzzi, sauna and and hot tub in the garden. They also treated themselves to a new Audi each, and took a dream trip to the Seychelles.

With 12-week-old Kalisha screaming in the background, Samantha says she still can't justify spending money on expensive clothes for the sake of it.

"We're still the same. You can't change when you've got kids," she says.