£2 to be a lady
Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 6:15 am
As raffle prizes go, an 18th-century country home worth £800,000 takes some beating.
Marie Segar, a finance worker, learned on Tuesday that she was the new owner of the house, after purchasing the winning ticket for just £2.
Segar will also receive the title of Lady of Melling, which was raffled off alongside the property. She joked that she would be changing the name on her bank card to Lady Marie.
The six-bedroom semi-detached Melling Manor in Lancashire was raffled off by Dunstan Low, who was struggling to sell it on the open market.
Low, 37, bought the Georgian six-bedroom property, where he lived with his wife Natasha, 32, and their two children Dylan, 15, and Ozzy, five, for £435,000 in 2014 and spent £150,000 on refurbishments. Low received no offers for its asking price of £800,000, so came up with the idea of selling enough £2 tickets to recoup his money.
The draw attracted entries from as far as China, Russia and Mauritius by those hoping to win the mansion, which has a ballroom, cinema room, wood-burning stove, parking for six cars and far-reaching views of the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales.
When he called Segar, from Warrington in Cheshire, to inform her of the good news, she accused him of “winding her up”.
According to the Blackpool Gazette, she told Low: “I’m just in shock. I can’t believe it, I just can’t. I don’t have a plan, I entered and I never thought for a moment ... you know I haven’t even told anybody! Thank you so much!”
The title of Lady of Milling was given to the raffle as a prize by its previous owner, St John’s Hospice in North Lancashire, as a thank you for a £30,000 donation that the Low family gave from their competition earnings.
Low said he has raised almost £900,000 from the raffle and that Segar had purchased 20 tickets for £40.
The graphic designer said he has been inundated with offers from people around the world asking him to raffle their properties for them. He added: “I have no regrets at all about the way we did this – I wouldn’t change a thing. It was stressful but it has been an amazing experience. I want congratulate Marie on her win and I really hope that she enjoys the house.”
