A lucky lottery winner who won a jackpot when he was 21 has shared how picking the winning numbers changed his life. James Evans won £10k every month for 30 years on a lucky dip Set For Life ticket from The National Lottery when he matched 2, 4, 22, 37, 45, and the Life Ball 10 in December 2020. Since then the now 25-year-old has swapped life block paving to becoming a ski instructor, as well as paying off his car, treating himself to a new computer and buying his first home, complete with a hot tub.

But he has also made sure those closest to him are also financially secure and made donations to charities close to his heart. The former landscaper said: “Apparently, I was the most chilled winner who had ever rung the National Lottery line but in truth I was in shock – it hadn’t sunk in. “I was on a zoom call when I told my friends, and they were all trying to guess the news I had to tell them. After I won, everyone I know started buying National Lottery tickets.

“What has really changed me as a person is being able to do things for others. My family is massively important to me, so I’ve paid for my mum and dad to come skiing in Austria with me, helped my sister buy a new car and helped my brother start his own business. I also still help my dad out with the family landscaping business when he needs me, I will always put him first and will continue to do so until he retires.

“I became involved in the charity Canine Partners last year, firstly to help renovate a bungalow and make it accessible for wheelchair users with dogs. Later, knowing my professional background as a landscaper, they told me they wanted to turn an overgrown area into a memorial garden for dogs who had passed – somewhere their owners could go back to and remember their dogs. “When they showed me a film with the dogs helping their owners, I was so moved that I cried twice. That evening, I couldn’t forget what I’d seen so I asked if I could do the memorial garden myself.

“I returned with a digger two weeks later, and it took a day to clear the ground. Then, I drew up plans, put the structure in and made concrete paths. I met a couple of wheelchair users and their dogs who said what a difference it had made to them, having somewhere they could come to reflect. “The work took just under two weeks. It became one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever done. By helping others, I feel like I’m passing on some of my luck.”.

Despite his expertise as a landscaper, skiing was always closest to his heart and he now dreams of teaching abroad. James added: “I love skiing and passed my level one exam to become a ski instructor last year, and I am now teaching at my local SnowDome. “My dream would be to take the full training course and teach abroad. It isn’t about the salary, it’s all about the experience for me and it really would be living the dream.

“Being a ski instructor was always my plan later in life but when I won Set For Life I thought, ‘why not right now?’ We used to go skiing a lot as a family and I try to go a few times a year. I am definitely more of a mountain than a beach person – I love the slopes. “I teach all ages, from as young as four right up to 70. What I love most about being a ski instructor is being able to help someone achieve something – seeing their face when they have done it is so rewarding.

“Winning Set For Life feels like a weight has lifted off my shoulders. Getting that money in my account every month will never get old, and I still have 310 more payments to come! I really wasn’t playing the lottery much before winning – just every now and then. And all it took was one Lucky Dip line to change it all.”. Research by The National Lottery reveals 76% of us dream of going travelling, 21% of us would learn a new skill or hobby or live and work abroad, half of us want to dine out more (50%) and just under a third dream about improving health and fitness (32%). Just under a quarter would start their own business (23%), just over a fifth of us would donate to a charity (22%) and 7% would retrain in a new career.