A retired BT engineer from Wrexham had 5,000 reasons to celebrate this Christmas.    

John Wright thought someone could be playing a joke on him when he received a call to say he had won the £5,000 jackpot in the Nightingale House Hospice Lottery’s Christmas Superdraw.

And John is not the only winner following the draw… he has kindly donated back his winnings to Nightingale House, the charity that cared for his late wife Sue.

John, 61, was shocked when he received the call he had won. He said: “I thought someone was teasing me. It was a pleasant surprise just before Christmas.

“I decided to donate the money back to the hospice to support the amazing work done here.

“We wouldn’t have coped without the help of the team, before and after Sue’s passing.

“It gave me a good feeling to give something back, to thank the hospice for everything they have done for us, knowing it will help other families like ours.’’ 

Sue was cared for by the team at Nightingale House following her cancer diagnosis, before she passed away in 2019. Sue and her younger sister Barbara, were both receiving end-of-life care at the hospice at the same time and sadly died two weeks apart.

John said that this extremely difficult time for his family had been made easier by the support from the team at Nightingale House.

Sue’s three children, Marie Gibson, Donna Jones, Rob Gibson, and Rob’s four-year-old daughter Mila Sue, joined him at the hospice to hand over the donation to the team.

Marie said: “There are so many services offered by the hospice.  Mum first came in for symptom management, and her sister Barbara accessed the day services.

‘’In reality, the last moments at the hospice for mum weren’t the last moments for us here as a family. Quite a few of us accessed the bereavement support after her passing. You just don’t realise what is on offer until you need it.

“The staff were amazing when mum was receiving her end-of-life care. From the nursing staff to the cleaners nothing was too much trouble.

“Mum had been a hospice supporter from the beginning, playing the lottery from when it began in 1996, and also helped to raise money for the hospice build. Our dad, Ian, should have come here but unfortunately, he passed away just before it opened. Mum supported the hospice since then.”