She bought a new bike for Steven, seven, on his birthday, and gave pounds l00 each to Richard, 15, and Alan, 16, which they spent on clothes.She bought a burglar alarm for pounds 700: “There are some rough elements on this estate. The pools win has increased our chances of being burgled.” The money, she says, has been invested for her children’s future: “I have no idea how long I’m going to be here I nearly died It’s changed my perspective. I’m not rushing out to spend on some flash holiday.”The pools win has caused conflict both within the family and the local community, she says. Their 35-year-old mother underwent radiotherapy and chemotherapy and is now in remission Then, in July, she won pounds 50,000 on the pools.
The family lives on the Yew Tree council estate in Sandwell, WalsallHer sons thought they would be going on a shopping spree. Instead, Mrs Evans invested three parts of the windfall in savings bonds and put the rest in the bank. Then I’d take my mum and my nan to Disney World, because everyone who wins the lottery does that Then we’d go to see President Clinton at the White House I think he looks very nice, and he tells funny jokes. And after that I’d go to Greenland to see Father Christmas to find out why he never quite brings you what you ask for on your list Then we’d go back to South Africa for a holiday. Mum says not to get my hopes up until it happens, but it could, couldn’t it?”A mother’s loveFour years ago, the three sons of Carol Evans learnt that she had been diagnosed with cervical cancerand had been given just six months to live. His father visits England up to three times a year, bringing big bags of sweets and special-edition Krugerrands Oliver keeps the coins in little velvet boxes. “I don’t look at them all the time, but when I do, I remember my dad.”When my mum does the lottery, sometimes she lets me pick the numbers.
If we won, I’d buy the best Lego castle, which costs pounds 70. I don’t like the crashing rocks theory: I don’t like the thought of the blood on the rocks.”When he remembers South Africa, he thinks of a big house with a swimming pool, and the sun always shining. That would be too frightening.”Dinosaurs, and their history, are his passion, together with drawing, making Plasticine models, building Lego castles and his treasured pet, Hammy the Hamster He wants to be an archaeologist when he grows up. “There are all sorts of explanations for why dinosaurs died out,” he explains patiently. “Some say there was a huge blizzard, others that the mountains came and crashed together, or that a huge hole opened in the earth and all the dinosaurs fell through it. As I come out the other end, I see shrubs and rocks and swamps all about Then I see something rushing through the trees There’s a flash of teeth, I hear a hiss. It’s a Stegosaurus – my favourite dinosaur, because it only eats plants I never go further than that in case I meet a T-Rex.
His mother spends about pounds 15 a week on treatsOliver dreams of being a time traveller: “When I’m bored in the day, I think of stepping through a hole in an invisible wall I go through this tunnel, full of wobbly colours. Still, it will probably always remind me of school.”Jurassic dreamsOliver Bowles, nine, came to England from South Africa after his parents split up six years ago Trudy, his mother, is secretary to a company director His father is a coin dealer in South Africa. Oliver lives with his mother and grandmother in Grantham, Lincolnshire He receives pounds 1 a week pocket money. I went out and bought the record and decided I liked the words. Some of them get pounds 50 a month pocket money, and extra for clothes. They think it’s important to have Lee or Levi jeans and Reebok sports gear, but I don’t I often shop in charity shops.”I used to be painfully shy I let it crush me. Then one day I thought, `This cannot go on, I have got to try and be myself,’ and I began to open out.”Sometimes the other girls call her a misfit.
“They used to sing this song by Pulp called `Misshapes’ every time I walked into the classroom. There is no television: “The gerbils wouldn’t like TV.”There is a phrase among today’s teenagers: “social meltdown”. It represents the shame and scorn that adolescents pour on their peers who do not conform to their brand-name/designer dress code. Sarah knows all about social meltdown: “My family isn’t poor, but we’re not as well off as some of the girls at school.