SPAR Prescot Road - Willowbrook Hospice

Spar North of England has donated £5,800 to local charities after stores were rewarded by Allwyn, following a trio of high value customer National Lottery wins.

Allwyn’s Share the Win scheme rewards retailers and stores which have sold high tier winning tickets of £50,000 or more, including through EuroMillions, Lotto and Thunderball tickets or scratchcards.

Off the back of three customers purchasing winning tickets at Spar Prescot Road in St Helens (above), Bargain Booze Longbenton in Newcastle (below left) and Spar Murton in County Durham (below right), all owned by James Hall & Co. Ltd, store teams demonstrated their charitable nature after receiving a little bit extra in this month’s pay packet.

Spar Prescot Road’s team chose to donate £2,100 to Willowbrook Hospice, and TV actor and comedian Johnny Vegas (third from right) - who is a regular customer - visited in his official capacity as charity patron alongside Hospice staff to receive the cheque.

Bargain Booze Longbenton - Chuf

The store team in Longbenton picked children’s cardiac charity CHUF, based at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital, as the recipient of £2,000, while Spar Murton chose to give Macrae House Community Centre and Andy’s Man Club an equal share of £1,700.

Vegas said: “I’m immensely proud to receive this cheque on behalf of Willowbrook Hospice from the team at Spar Prescot Road, a store in the heart of the community. This is St Helens, and folk here give back to their community.

“Despite living through a period of trying financial times, the staff have still decided to donate a proportion of their reward to Willowbrook rather than keep it all. It’s a charity which means an awful lot to me for the care they provided for my dad before he passed away.”

SPAR Murton - Macrae House and Andy's Man Club

Fiona Drummond, Company Stores Director at James Hall & Co. Ltd, said: “Allwyn’s scheme to reward retailers is a great idea and I’m so pleased our store teams have chosen to donate some of the money to charities close to them both geographically and where there’s a personal community connection.”