She still even lives in the same house she owned before.
A midwife who became a millionaire after winning the lottery 10 years ago is still delivering babies.
Ruth Breen was on her lunch break at the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary where she works in Wigan on this exact day in 2014 when she found out she’d landed a seven figure sum.
The 45-year-old was flicking through her emails and discovered she’d won £1million on the EuroMillions.
But despite her big win, the mother-of-one still works for the NHS – though she has been able to enjoy exotic holidays to Dubai, St Lucia and Mauritius.
‘An awful lot has changed in the past 10 years but then again, not so much,’ she said.
‘The win came at the most perfect time ever. It allowed me to reduce my working hours, giving me a much better work-life balance.
‘I’m really lucky that I only work part-time. That’s enabled me to spend much more time with my daughter doing fun mum things instead of working flat out for a really really busy service.’
Ruth said she also wanted to carry on working to set a good example to her daughter, who was 11 when she won.
‘We’ve had great holidays, but we’ve tried to keep our feet on the ground and I think working really helps me to do that.,’ she said.
‘The universe gifted me something incredible but you can’t take it for granted, not everybody’s that lucky.’
The community midwife now arrives at her visits in a BMW X3, saying the need for boot space prevented her from driving a sportier model – and her first purchase following the win was a pair of Jimmy Choos.
She said: ‘I nearly cried when I was paying for them in Selfridges because I couldn’t believe I was actually able to purchase this and I had the money to do it. It was a little bit overwhelming.
‘That collection’s a little bit bigger now, I don’t cry as much any more.’
Ruth still lives in the house she bought just before her win and says most of the new mothers she works with are unaware they are being looked after by a millionaire.
‘I don’t introduce myself and say “oh by the way I won a million quid 10 years ago”,’ she said.
‘The vast majority of people haven’t got a clue and that’s the way I like it. I’m treated just like any other midwife by patients and staff.’
To mark the 10-year anniversary of her win, Ruth has been supporting charity The Baby Room, which provides essentials for new families in Wigan.
She added: ‘We all know there’s a cost-of-living crisis that’s been going on for quite some time and babies don’t come cheap.
‘Not everybody is fortunate enough to be able to just go out and spend however much on all the equipment they’re going to need to make sure the baby’s got somewhere safe to sleep at night or that they’ve got sterilising equipment to make sure the bottles and teats they’re using, if they choose to bottle feed, are safe and clean.’
Alison Wakefield, who set up the baby bank in 2022 after having her youngest child, said: ‘Without our support we’d have babies that were sleeping on the floor, they wouldn’t have a safe space to sleep, we’d have them sleeping in drawers, we’d have babies using nappies more than once.
‘It’s an essential service that is definitely needed. Without us people would be going without and babies would be going without.’
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