The chief executive of Camelot praised the Express & Star Photo Archive project on a visit to Wolverhampton.

 

Nigel Railton and members of his senior management team were in the city to visit the newspaper and present a plaque to Nirlip Hayre of Mander News in the Mander Centre, which has average National Lottery sales of £17,000 a week.

 

The newsagents has raised more than £400,000 for National Lottery good causes since 2016.

 

The visit to the Express & Star came as Camelot celebrates its 25th anniversary of running the National Lottery this year.

 

Mr Railton, who sat in on the Express & Star’s morning conference, said that more than £2.6 billion had gone to 38,000 projects in the West Midlands over the years.

 

“A press organisation like this really understands the local area and the difference the National Lottery has made to the local community,” he explained.

 

“The National Lottery has been an amazing success story thanks to all the people who have played the game over the years.

 

“It was brilliant to see the Express & Star photographic archive which has been supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.”

 

Mr Railton, who worked in Birmingham for British Rail for three years before training as an accountant and joining Camelot, added: “It is hugely important to understand how the National Lottery operates regionally and we have been doing visits like this for the last two years all over the UK. It really gives us an understanding of what the National Lottery means to people and different areas.”

 

There are more than 4,400 retailers in the West Midlands who sell National Lottery tickets and Mr Railton said on each visit they went to a retailer to thank them for the difference they made.

 

The team from Camelot’s head office in Watford also visited two National Lottery-funded projects in Birmingham – creative innovation centre STEAMhouse, which has had £500,000 of funding awarded by Arts Council England to Birmingham City University, and the Lapworth Museum of Geology, which has £1.6 million of funding through National Lottery Heritage Fund for its education room.