Derbyshire business owner Priti Patel raises over £2.5 million for good causes
“Raising more than £2.5 million for Good Causes across the UK is something we can share with our customers - they’ve helped make it happen.”
A Derbyshire business owner is a star of a new billboard campaign after helping to raise more than £2.5 million for good causes.
Priti Patel, who runs John's News on Bath Street in Ilkeston, has supported good causes through selling National Lottery tickets and scratchcards.
Now she has been recognised as a Local Retail Champion by Allwyn UK, operator of the National Lottery and she will star in their new campaign.
The campaign, which is funded by Allwyn UK, celebrates the role of independent retailers in raising funds for National Lottery Good Causes.
Priti’s image will appear on billboards in Ilkeston and in social media adverts highlighting her impressive fundraising achievement.
Priti, who has run John’s News for 16 years, is one of six shopkeepers appearing in the campaign, alongside retailers in Glasgow, Bristol, Manchester, Belfast and Gateshead.
Commenting on her fundraising success, she said: “I’ve been running John's News for 16 years, so it’s lovely to see the shop recognised in this way.
“Raising more than £2.5 million for Good Causes across the UK is something we can share with our customers - they’ve helped make it happen.
“From Derby Museums to Deaf-initely Women, National Lottery funding supports a real variety of projects across Derbyshire and the East Midlands.
“That makes this feel about much more than having my face on a billboard.”
New figures from Allwyn UK reveal that independent retailers across the UK have raised more than £10 billion for Good Causes since The National Lottery launched in 1994.
Priti is one of more than 22,000 independent retailers selling National Lottery tickets and scratchcards across the UK, and one of 28 retailers to have raised more than £2 million for Good Causes.
A further 469 have raised more than £1 million and two have each raised more than £3 million.
On average, 23p of every pound spent on The National Lottery goes to Good Causes, supporting projects across arts, community, heritage and sport.
Since The National Lottery began, £528 million has been awarded to support 8,337 projects spanning community, sport, arts and heritage in Derbyshire.
In 2025, over £155 million was awarded to support 2,028 projects across the East Midlands. Deaf-initely Women has received £1,589,748 to help deaf women across the East Midlands get their voices heard through workshops, sessions, skills and friendships, after growing from a chat between friends at a birthday celebration.
Some of the largest grants in Derbyshire have supported Derby Museums, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust Limited and Rounders England Limited. Across the wider East Midlands, the National Space Centre has benefited from £32,330,768 of funding.
Alastair Ruxton, Chief Impact Officer at Allwyn UK, said: “Most people in the UK live within half a mile of a Lottery-funded Good Cause project. That reach is in no small part due to the extraordinary efforts of independent retailers like Priti who sell National Lottery tickets.
“The remarkable £10 billion local retailers have raised for Good Causes around the country has helped train Olympic and Paralympic athletes, fund award-winning British films and support thousands of vital community, education and heritage projects. We’re putting Priti and John's News at the heart of this local campaign, to celebrate the hard work behind that contribution and make its impact visible in the community.”