HALE winner Sharon Mather is toasting to a momentous milestone in the National Lottery’s history.

Lottery winners from across the North West celebrated the creation of 4,000 National Lottery millionaires at the Champagne Millionaire Picnic with a Twist in Cheshire in September.

Sharon was among the region’s winners, who are worth more than £52m combined, to celebrate the milestone. Back in 2010, Sharon scooped a £12.4m jackpot on the EuroMillions and is one of 461 National Lottery millionaires in the North West.

Speaking at the picnic, Sharon said: “It is fantastic that the National Lottery is celebrating creating 4,000 millionaires this year – this is an amazing milestone.

“Events like today are great for meeting other winners and gives us a chance to share our experiences of becoming millionaires.

“The lottery changes the lives of so many people – not just the winners, but the lives of their friends and families too, in addition to all of the charities and good causes across the region which also benefit as a result of people playing.

“Playing the lottery really does make dreams come true.”

A National Lottery spokesperson added: “It’s incredible to think that there have been 4,000 players that have become a millionaire thanks to a life-changing lottery win.

“Whether they believed in luck or fate and no matter how they have spent their winnings, each winner followed the same path; they simply bought a ticket and joined the lottery millionaires club as a result.

"The National Lottery is creating more millionaires than ever before and we can’t wait to see how many more winners in the North West join the ever-growing club.”

  Alongside the thousands of millionaires created so far, The National Lottery has also made a difference to communities across the UK. Players have so far raised £34 billion for Good Causes, benefitting more than 450,000 individual projects.