First ever Omaze winner scored stunning £1m house - here's what happened next

02 January 2024 , 20:31

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Ian Garrick won an incredible £1million home in Cheshire after losing his wife - but decided to sell it in favour of staying in his hometown instead (Image: PA)

The first Brit to win a home on the Omaze property draw has revealed he sold his prize - as he never wanted to move anyway.

Ian Garrick's life was changed when he entered the £10 draw whilst still reeling from losing his wife, coming out with a £1million luxury home in Cheshire. But the 58-year-old, who had only entered on a whim, says that while the windfall certainly gave him a much-needed boost after losing his wife Julie to breast cancer, he had no plans to leave his hometown of Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire.

Selling the four-bedroom house in Cheadle Hulme has taken longer than expected, Ian claims, since winning the incredible property back in 2020. The civil servant said that, despite the temptation of living in the stunning detached home, he didn't want to leave his three sons and friends.

Ian ended up selling the mansion as he didn't want to leave his home where this sons were (PA)

Speaking about his win, Ian told MailOnline: "I sold it as soon as I could. I didn't want to move across the country and leave friends and family, but it did change my life as it enabled me to take early retirement from the police and lay down solid foundations for financial security for me and my sons."

"I've got no ties to Cheshire, so it would be a complete upheaval, then I would have the headache of running a house that size in an area like that without a job, which doesn't really compute financially." Ian was helped by sons James, 32, Callum, 24, and Nathan, 21, with selling the house, but claims the journey to sell his prize property wasn't easy.

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He said: "It took ages to sell it, as we were still in lockdown," and "I had to keep paying the various bills for the Cheshire house and keep an eye on it from a distance, but I never really entertained moving there." The house was finally sold for £1.1million in May 2021.

Despite the challenges, Ian believes the win did him and his family some good. He used the money from the sale for other projects, including renovating his Mablethorpe home.

Recalling how he entered the draw, Ian told The Express back in 2020: "I saw the draw on Facebook and I saw that it was for a cancer charity. I thought 'Why not?', shoved a tenner in and didn't think any more of it.

"Since my wife died, we've basically been in limbo. Our house has been falling down around us. We've just been trying to hold each other together. If I'm honest, we needed some sort of boost to carry on."

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Susie Beever