LOTTERY winners helped spread Christmas joy today (Tuesday, December 10) as they delivered a vintage Routemaster bus full of presents to the elderly at Age UK in Middlesbrough.

The winners and their families played Santa for the morning, presenting an array of gifts to the charity and its 50 plus patrons.

The winners from across the North-East and Yorkshire arrived at the activity centre where they prepared a Christmas lunch for the Age UK patrons, and spread festive cheer by hosting a Christmas quiz and singing carols.

The charity day was part of The National Lottery’s Winner Wonderland tour, which will see National Lottery winners visiting a host of charitable concerns, all of which have received National Lottery funding. The Winner Wonderland bus will travel 1,500 miles over the coming week, visiting eight projects and involving more than 60 kind-hearted winners.

Age UK Teesside was one organisation to benefit from a £16.1m grant from the BIG Lottery Fund for Age UK’s ‘Fit as a Fiddle’ initiative in 2007. 385,000 older people took part in activities, from aqua aerobics to zumba, at community centres, residential homes, sports centres, church and village halls across the UK.

Leading the Christmas carols, with his Santa hat firmly in place was Andy Garth from Middlesbrough who won £1m on Christmas Day last year.

He said: “This has been a truly excellent start to Christmas. It’s been great meeting everyone on the project and showing the users the Winner Wonderland bus was awesome, their faces really did light up.

“Being able to help out today has been a humbling experience and I hope that through our visit and the few gifts we’ve bought, everyone at Age UK Teesside will feel recognised for the brilliant work they do.”