Two National Lottery winners from Stoke-on-Trent have kick-started the Christmas celebrations for one local National Lottery-funded community centre after donating a giant advent calendar and other festive goodies as a thank you to volunteers for their tireless and continued work during the pandemic.

The Biddulph Youth and Community Zone on Church Road started as a youth café every Friday night in 2010 but has grown rapidly to become a social enterprise operating as a community asset, running various valuable events and programmes for local people of all ages.

National Lottery winners Neil Jones from Lightwood and John and Jackie Livesley from Trentham visited the centre to meet manager Antony Capostagno and volunteers and hand over a 1.4metre high luxury advent calendar filled with Christmas goodies such as chocolate, jam, and biscuits. They also handed over boxes of biscuits and chocolates, as well as other Christmas gifts for the army of volunteers who give up their time on a regular basis to help their local community.

Back in 2015 the Biddulph Youth and Community Zone received £435,508 of funding from The National Lottery Community Fund to continue and expand services at their Youth Cafe service which was at risk of closure. It took over the running of the rest of the centre to include a community hub. The Youth Cafe project on a Friday evening was extended to cover weekends and the service was developed from being a place for young people to hang out to a more structured range of activities that addressed local needs more effectively. Taking over the centre has enabled them to develop a thriving community Centre that offers a safe community environment for all ages and supports the community in a variety of ways.

Neil Jones, who won a £2.4M Lotto jackpot from the draw on 8 December 2010, the year the Zone started, said: "The last 18 months have been tough for everyone but especially places like the Community Zone that can only do their great work due to even greater volunteers. I had my amazing luck over a decade ago - at this very special time of year - and it changed my life. I want to do my bit to help others who are so deserving of thanks."

John and Jackie Livesley won a £2.6M Lotto jackpot in the draw on 15 November 2008. John retired as a warehouse worker with Jackie continuing her work at the Probation Service. She said: "If I can find a positive in this horrible Covid, it is how communities have stayed together to help one another. Centres like the Zone here in Biddulph and across the Potteries are the glue that help keep people together and we should do as much as we can to support them."

Antony Capostagno, Manager at The Biddulph Youth and Community Zone said: "A massive thanks to Neil, Jackie and John for their kind donation which is the perfect start to our countdown to Christmas.

"After the past couple of years everyone has had, their gesture will make a huge difference to our wonderful volunteers who themselves make a difference where we live. We look forward to opening a new advent calendar door every day and seeing what's inside. But I'm sure the multiple boxes of chocolates and biscuits also donated won't last as long!

"The National Lottery Community Fund grant was a lifeline to the Zone, which is a vital resource and hub for the local community. Since receiving the funding we have expanded, putting in place more structured programmes that address people's needs from film clubs to indoor bowling to badminton."

By playing any National Lottery game, players generate more than £30M each week for National Lottery-funded projects. This money helps support everything from the local charity making a difference where you live through to helping our nation's athletes win Olympic and Paralympic gold medals. To date, over £45BN has been raised and distributed to National Lottery Good Causes through more than 660,000 individual grants.

Thanks to National Lottery players, over £1.2BN is being used by charities and organisations affected by the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, which includes over £600M in funding support from the National Lottery Community Fund which is being used to help groups best placed to support people and communities through the crisis.