A street in Sussex is celebrating after several residents won big on the People's Postcode Lottery.
The People’s Postcode Lottery is a subscription lottery that aims to raise money for charities while also bringing cash prizes to homes across the UK.
With £1,000 prizes up for grabs for 20 different postcodes around the UK from Monday to Friday, on Saturdays, players could win a share of £1 million.
And that's exactly what happened on this Sussex street, with one great-grandmother now planning to fly across the USA to see her son.
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Sussex street wins Postcode Lottery Millionaire Street prize
Neighbours at the TN40 1LY postcode in the seaside town of Bexhill-on-Sea scooped the People's Postcode Lottery’s weekly Millionaire Street prize on Saturday, October 18.
Five houses in the winning postcode bagged £200,000 per ticket.
Barbara Cartmel, who lives in a seaside apartment overlooking the English Channel, was one of the winners.
After the win was revealed, she said: "I'm shaking like a leaf! It means I can go and see my son again and his family - that means the world to me."
She added: "In two words? Life-changing. I didn't think at my age I could be so excited about anything again. When you get to 80, you think you've seen everything and done everything.
"I imagined I’d maybe won £1,000, and I’d have been chuffed with that.
"Then this young lady from Postcode Lottery came to my door and I thought, well, that must mean it’s a bit more than that!
"But I never expected anything nearly as much as £200,000.
"It’ll probably sink in when the money hits my bank account. That’ll be the moment I think, ‘Wow, that really happened’."
Barbara’s eldest son Brian lives in Seattle, USA, where he works for Microsoft.
She has visited him before, but the long-haul flight made another trip appear impossible; now she plans to fly back across the pond.
She said: "The last time I went out, I upgraded so I’d have a little cubicle to myself. I could lie down, watch my own television. But if I could do that both ways, I will go."
Barbara was with husband Garry for 54 years before he sadly passed away in 2018, after living with Alzheimer’s disease.
Barbara said: “He was in the Navy for 24 years - a shipwright, a Chief Petty Officer.
"When he came out of the Navy, we opened a picture framing shop in Eastbourne.
"I had it for 20 years - it was called the Eastbourne Framing Centre. We had a wonderful time."
Barbara’s family tree also stretches far, with three sons, Steve, Tony, and Brian, and a daughter, Laura.
Between them, they’ve given her seven grandchildren and a great-granddaughter, who just turned one.
When Barbara realised how much she’d won, she wasted no time spreading the good news.
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She said: "I phoned my daughter, but she was at work. She’s picking me up to go to my hospital appointment later.
Then I phoned my daughter-in-law and joked, ‘You’ll have to pay to speak to me now, I’m afraid!'"
How does the People's Postcode Lottery work?
The People's Postcode Lottery website explains how the competition works.
It says: "Every month, players in a postcode sector share £3.2 million or more.
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"In this example, £1.6 million of this will be shared equally by tickets playing with the winning postcode, with the other £1.6 million being shared equally by tickets playing with the winning postcode sector.
"On the rare occasion where there are not enough winning tickets in the postcode sector, the area may be expanded to the postcode district."
A minimum of 33% of each ticket goes to charity and players have raised more than £1.3 billion for over 9,000 charities and good causes since 2005.
