Widowed pensioner set to turn £25 raffle ticket into £4.5M after winning luxury mansion

Valued at £4.5M, June Smith has now chosen to sell the property to help fund her family’s ‘next chapter’

A widowed pensioner has placed the luxury mansion she won in a raffle for £25 on the market mere weeks after winning it.

74-year-old June Smith, from Essex, won the waterfront house in one of Cornwall’s most sought-after locations in May alongside £100,000 in cash. Mortgage free, all stamp duties and legal fees were covered.

“Never in my wildest dreams would I expect to win anything like this. It will have enough room for all my family to holiday together”, Ms Smith said after winning the house through Omaze, an organisation partnering with charities across the UK.

A waterfront home with a prime position over the Fowey Estuary in South Cornwall, the property is valued at £4.5M (Rightmove)

Founded in the US in 2012, Omaze has since partnered with the likes of Teenage Cancer Trust, The Prince’s Trust and British Heart Foundation, raising over £15,000,000 to date.

The entries for the Cornwall House helped to raise the organisation’s largest charity donation in history, totalling £2,100,000. Given to charity Marie Curie, the figure helped to fund approximately 100 nurses and healthcare assistants, allowing almost 2,000 families “expert care and emotional support”, Matthew Reed, the charity’s chief executive, explained.

Valued at £4.5M, Ms Smith has now chosen to sell the property to help fund her family’s “next chapter.”

“I wanted to enjoy at least one family holiday here before I put it on the market”, Ms Smith said, explaining that she and her family “all came and stayed together” and “made the most of it.”

“The house is just wonderful and it’s been a magical holiday that we’ll remember forever”, she added.

The concrete landing stage allows direct water access (Rightmove)

The £4.5M is accompanied by a private yoga studio (Rightmove)

“I knew winning this house would be life changing for all my family, and that’s why I’ve decided to sell now, as I want to use the money to help all my children and grandchildren with the next chapter in their lives.

“The money is going to make such a huge difference to all of us.”

A waterfront home with a prime position over the Fowey Estuary in South Cornwall, the property is aptly called “Pieds Dans L Eau”, which translates to “feet in the water” in French.

The waterfront home, called ‘Pieds Dans L Eau’, has been listed on Rightmove (Rightmove)

The concrete landing stage allows direct water access, with the six-bedroom pad further accompanied by a boat store, terrace, cinema room and multiple balconies with panoramic views of the sea.

Ms Smith has lived in her two-bedroom detached house in Essex for almost two decades. Her husband, Ron, passed away last year, 43 years after the pair married.

She believes that Ron “played a part” in the win, noting that he would’ve “absolutely loved the design of this house” and would be “looking down with an approving smile.”