Dinner lady still working at 73 wins £3m house and now calls Cornwall home

A dinner lady who worked two jobs won her dream £3 million home at the age of 73.

The surprise is even better for the grandmother-of-four Rose Doyle and husband Tony because they have been living in the same house in Birmingham for 44 years.

But they now call the luxurious five-bedroom home on the gorgeous Cornish coast their home – which comes with a hot tub, panoramic terrace and landscaped garden.

The prize also included £100,000 in cash, which made it an easy decision for her to retire when she found out she’d won.

Rose put away £10 each month for a subscription to the monthly Omaze draw while serving meals at a primary school and working as a sales assistant for an insurance firm.

The win came as all the more of a shock as she had stopped paying attention to the results, which see top winners land a property worth at least £1 million.

‘Because I know I’ve entered every draw automatically, I don’t keep track of all the houses each time, so had no clue what we’d won at first,’ Rose said.

‘We thought maybe it was a little holiday to Cornwall or a few hundred pounds – we didn’t think for one minute that we’d won a £3 million pound house there – things like this just don’t happen to people like us.’

Tony, a gas engineer, is also seriously considering retirement.

Speaking of her plans to enjoy the home, Rose said: ‘We’ve got a large extended family, so we’re going to be very popular this summer, the phone won’t stop ringing as they’ll all be wanting to book their holidays down here.

‘I’m not sure what we’re going to do long term yet – we’ll definitely enjoy it as a family for a bit – whatever we decide to do, it’s going to change all our lives for the better – it’s a true miracle.’

The house overlooks the idyllic Cornish seaside village of St Agnes.

Rose said the interiors are ‘absolutely gorgeous’ and that she’ll ‘never get bored of walking onto the balcony and taking in these stunning views’.

The draw raised £3.1 million for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) conservation charity.

The charity’s CEO, Tanya Steele, said: ‘The money raised through this draw will go towards our vital work protecting wildlife and restoring nature, both on our doorsteps in the UK and around the world.’

This article was originally published on April 15, 2024.

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