Lottery winners in New Brighton beach clean up

Instead of flashing the cash, a group of multi-millionaire lottery winners have spent a morning clearing plastic from a North West beach.

The nine National Lottery winners turned out at New Brighton beach in Wirral, Merseyside, on Monday to work alongside charity The 2 Minute Foundation, which is dedicated to cleaning up the planet, 'two minutes at a time'.

Deborah Mather, 63, from Chorley in Lancashire, who won £5.1 million in 2005, joined the clean up.

She said she had been "quite shocked" to see the amount of plastic pieces that had washed ashore.

Ms Mather said she and her fellow lottery winners did their best to give something back after claiming their jackpot prizes.

She added: "I don't know a lottery winner that doesn't help out in some way or form."

Ben Woods, 40, from Wirral, who scooped just under #2.5 million in 2004, said he had been cleaning up objects including felt-tip pen lids and bottle tops.

The clean-up took place as a report from the the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that humans are unequivocally driving global warming.

Claire Giner, campaigns manager for The 2 Minute Foundation, said: "The climate is changing so rapidly because we're so reliant on plastics and plastic production.

"In order to combat one we have to combat both."

Ms Giner said the problem of plastic on the country's beaches had become more obvious as the coronavirus pandemic led to many people enjoying holidays in the UK instead of travelling abroad.

The 2 Minute Foundation, which received £19,410 of National Lottery funding in 2018 and 2019, calls for people to carry out simple, achievable acts which can add up to make a big difference to the planet.