{"id":435903,"date":"2026-02-20T10:07:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T10:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/435903\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T10:07:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T10:07:15","slug":"wetherspoons-manchester-manager-left-stunned-after-hes-given-144000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/435903\/","title":{"rendered":"Wetherspoons’ Manchester manager left stunned after he’s given \u00a3144,000"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Derbyshire, who works at Wetherspoons in Manchester city centre, won big on the Postcode Lottery<\/p>\n

George happy with win<\/p>\n

A Wetherspoons manager has won \u00a3144k just weeks after signing up for the lottery. George Derbyshire was waiting for the No59 to Manchester city centre<\/a> when he spotted an advertisement for the Postcode Lottery at his bus stop.<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old signed up before his shift at Wetherspoons last September and five months later, he has been awarded \u00a312k a month for a year.<\/p>\n

The diehard Manchester United and Salford<\/a> City fan, who lives in a block of flats across from the fateful bus stop, said: \u201cI saw the advert for the Postcode Lottery at the stop where I get the bus into town to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cCasting my mind back I can still see the advert in my head and the animals on the cheque. Seeing the red, yellow and green poster for the Postcode Lottery I thought, \u2018let\u2019s sign up\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is where I am now. It\u2019s amazing, especially after just playing for a relatively short period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI can do a lot of good with this money. I would have been happy with anything. The weather<\/a>\u2019s glorious and the day\u2019s just gotten glorious as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy the simple things in life and I\u2019m easily pleased. It\u2019s an incredible amount of money and I\u2019m so grateful for it. I\u2019ll stare at it in my account for a few days, but it\u2019s going to be an amazing year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"George<\/p>\n

George presented with prize by lottery\u2019s Judie McCourt<\/p>\n

George won with four other neighbours in Manchester after M8 8BW landed the Postcode Lottery prize on Friday 20 February. Every ticket was worth \u00a312,000 a month for a year.<\/p>\n

Now the history buff is planning to get his first passport in almost a decade and visit Rome\u2019s archaeological wonders, which he studied at uni.<\/p>\n

George said: \u201cI\u2019ve not even got a passport now. It expired a few years ago, so the first thing I\u2019ll do is renew it. I\u2019ve not been abroad for nine years. The last place I went to was Prague with a mate.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI think the new passport will have a few stamps on it over the next few years.\u201d<\/p>\n

George studied archaeology and ancient history at Birmingham University. And, as a student, he once appeared in a BBC<\/a> report during a dig at Chedworth Roman Villa in Gloucestershire when a new mosaic was discovered.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI did archaeology and history at uni and spent 20 years of my younger life studying Rome and Greece and I\u2019ve never been. I\u2019ve never seen any of the monuments I\u2019ve studied. I\u2019ve never seen the Colosseum, so I\u2019m going to Rome.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"George<\/p>\n

George displays his year of cash<\/p>\n

He is also planning to spoil his family, including his siblings and parents. He said: \u201cI\u2019ll treat the family. They deserve it just as much as I do.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and my younger brothers have booked a holiday in the Lake District. I\u2019ll pay that for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

George did a half marathon to raise money for Alzheimer\u2019s Society to support research four years ago \u2013 and it\u2019s a cause close to his heart, having affected a family member.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cAlzheimer\u2019s is something that\u2019s not really talked about and it\u2019s stigmatised in society. When I had the opportunity to raise money, I couldn\u2019t say no.\u201d<\/p>\n

A clinical trial using a blood test to help diagnose Alzheimer\u2019s disease, supported with \u00a35 million in funding raised by Postcode Lottery players, is underway. It could lead to faster and more reliable diagnosis of Alzheimer\u2019s, the most common form of dementia.<\/p>\n

George said: \u201cIt\u2019s supporting charities like that which made me want to join the Postcode Lottery. There is a lot that people can do to help. That\u2019s what charities are all about \u2013 communities, friends and family coming together to support them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, with a laugh: \u201cMaybe I\u2019ll get a new pair of running shoes now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neighbour Jason Brennan, who lives in the next block, was also in the running for the same prize.<\/p>\n

The 53-year-old mail centre worker was left stunned when his chain of 12 cheques unfurled, then said: \u201cThis is unbelievable. I\u2019ve heard of this but never thought it would ever happen to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are not enough words in the English language to explain how unbelievably excitable and stupendous this is.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI work for Royal Mail, so I know all about postcodes. I deal with them every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jason<\/p>\n

Jason will take mum to Caribbean<\/p>\n

The first thing Jason\u2019s planning is a trip to a travel agency to make his 74-year-old mum Barbara\u2019s dream come true with a Caribbean holiday.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cMy mother wants to go on a Caribbean cruise, and I have the means now. It feels great to be able to do that. I\u2019ll need to sit down and think what else I\u2019ll do with it. It\u2019s just amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he added: \u201cI\u2019m going to carry on playing, because I know that lightning does strike twice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Derbyshire, who works at Wetherspoons in Manchester city centre, won big on the Postcode Lottery George happy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[243,84,59,2951,1441,2447,56,1018,54,55,37242],"class_list":{"0":"post-435903","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-bbc","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-gb","11":"tag-manchester-city-centre","12":"tag-manchester-united-fc","13":"tag-salford","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-uk-weather","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom","18":"tag-wetherspoons"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}