A GROUP of millionaires helped spread a little Christmas cheer by opening a giant gingerbread house for a Rochford charity. 

The 12 lottery winners, including five from South Essex, worked around the clock to transform a wood cabin into the gingerbread playhouse for Hamelin Trust's Roots and Shoots charity, which provides training and work experience for adults with learning disabilities.

Using more than 100 litres of paint, 60 paintbrushes, 30 rollers, 40 bespoke wooden shapes, 6 sacks of fake snow and 25 metres of twinkly lights, the finished product bought tears of joy to the Roots and Shoots team.

The playhouse will be filled with gifts and toys for the charity users and visitors to enjoyafter the keys were handed over today.

The Trust plans to use the new Gingerbread playhouse for public fundraising events, before turning it into an extension of their tearoom project next year.

The five winners from our area are Sue and Barry Richards from Rochford, who won £3million in January, Julie Styles from Stanford Le Hope, who won £1.6 million in April 2012, Tracy Field from Benfleet, who won £2.8 million in August 2008, and Dean Allen who won £13.8 million in 2000.

Ricky Cock, project leader for the charity, said: “The timing of this amazing gift from local lottery winners couldn’t be better.

"We’ve just had approval to develop a new tearoom on-site which will use and sell fresh produce from the gardens here. The tearoom will open in the summer and our new gingerbread house will be a real draw to the site.

"It’s so exciting. We just cannot believe that all these people, who could surely be sunning themselves on an exotic beach somewhere, have instead picked up paintbrushes and hammers to give us a fantastic Christmas present."

Carer Susan Richards, who won her £3million win on a National Lottery scratchcard, said: "I’ve been a carer for many years, helping clients with an array of disabilities so I’m already very familiar with the work of Hamelin Trust however I didn’t realise that in total the organisation has received more than £650,000 National Lottery funding, including nearly £300,000 for the Roots and Shoots project, and all made possible by National Lottery players.

"While my life has been changed overnight with the win, it’s good to know that other incredibly important local projects just like this are also lottery winners.

“We’ve had a great time working with the project on the gingerbread house and I really hope this gift will help Roots and Shoots continue to grow and develop to help many more people in the future.

"The team here are an inspiration and deserve our support, I’m certainly going to be coming to the tea room next summer and stocking-up on freshly grown produce."

The project was part of #GivingTuesday, which is an international campaign led in the UK by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF).

It encourages people to ‘do good stuff’ for causes they care about following the shopping frenzy of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

More than 1,400 organisations including major charities and businesses are signed up to take part.